Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows The Struggle
by thefanfictiongirl
Summary: This is a story about Neville,Ginny,Luna and Draco's seventh year at Hogwarts. Based primarly on the books and movies it explains the emotions, thoughs and motivations behind their actions. PLEASE READ AND REVIEW.
1. King's Kross

_**This story takes place during the deathly hallows.**_

_**After reading for the 100**__**th**__** time the books and reading every fan fiction ever written for them I found myself wondering what happened to Draco, Neville, Luna, Ginny and the D.A during Deathly Hallows. We never really got to see their side of the story since the book was centered at the golden trio's adventures. (Also we never got to see the emotional distress Ron had to put up with after he left Harry and Hermione). **_

_**So I came up with this story.**_

_**I am trying to stay as close as I can to each character's personalities and the events of the book. I am not going to (dramatically) change the events that happened at the book just explain the thoughts, emotions and motivations behind everyone's actions.**_

_**I know that this review sucks but just give it a chance for Merlin's sake!**_

_**P.S Is Draco attending his seventh year at Hogwarts? I've read that he indeed attended his last year and at the malfoy manor scene (when Hermione gets tortured) he was on Easter holidays and we also see him at the scene of the Room of Requirement but why did Neville never mention him when he mentioned Crabbe and Goyle's attitude at the classes? And would the D.A let Malfoy go unpunished? Something inside me stops me of sending Draco to school. I can't imagine him casually attending classes. But since J.R wrote it this way, he will attend the classes. That will be interesting to write since we have no information about Draco´s seventh year.**_

**DRACO'S POINT OF VIEW**

Draco Malfoy was leaning against the wall of his bedroom after a tiring and most of all horrible day. It wasn't a physically tiring day since he didn't do anything particular at all. It was an emotionally tiring day. Another one of those days that he wished to go to his room, close his eyes and drift to a dreamless sleep.

Almost three weeks have passed since Albus Dumbledore has been killed at the astronomy tower of Hogwarts. Killed by the hand of Severus Snape instead of Draco's.

Draco remembered that day like it was just yesterday and not over a month ago. He stood there with his wand at his hand next to a disarmed and weak Dumbledore. He had his chance to kill the headmaster without having to put up with any form of resistance. He wanted to kill the old man and make the Dark Lord understand that Draco Malfoy wasn't a simple teenager but a powerful man and a powerful wizard. He wanted to kill Dumbledore so much but he didn't.

He never got to think of it earlier but before his fellow death eaters came he _lowered_ his wand. He didn't know why and he didn't want to think of it either but the words of his former headmaster kept echoing through his mind.

_You are not a killer Draco…_

But Draco really didn't want to think of that. He had more important things to think about.

After Draco's 'failure' to kill Dumbledore, the Dark Lord was furious. He had that crazy, menacing look he had when he was about to kill someone and Draco for a moment feared of the worst. But Severus Snape interfered begging for the kid's life. The Dark Lord spared Draco's life but not without a cost. He tortured Draco with the cruciatus curse and let his parents watch him suffer. His mother was crying, begging him to stop but he forced her to torture him herself. She refused, so he made his father to torture Draco again and again. His father's hand was shaking and he was about the verge of tears but he knew that if he didn't comply a worse punishment would come.

After that day the Malfoys were ordered to stay home and never in any circumstances go out without being ordered to. The Malfoy manor had been made into a Death Eaters place of meeting and Death Eaters strolled inside and outside the house all the time.

Draco was dealing with the way his life has changed before _that_ day came. The day Voldemort killed professor Burbage. He watched silently as his former professor begged for help, looking directly at Snape's eyes. He listened to her begging him to spare her life. He watched the snake eating her slowly, piece by piece.

He hated muggles and everything about their filthy blood but watching her getting killed shook him up. It made his stomach sick and his nights filled with agonizing nightmares. He didn't know why this particular death made him feel _that_ sick since he already seen people dying but he suspected that it was because he considered being torn into pieces and eaten by a snake the worst kind of death.

His days weren't any better. He was constantly looking for any sign of Voldemort wanting to kill him or his family. He feared for his own life but he didn't show it. He stayed quiet and unnoticed just like his mom advised him.

He was scared for her life. He saw her eyes red and swollen, her body getting thinner and weaker day by day and her life being sucked by her and he knew that it was because of _him_. She feared that Voldemort would eventually kill him.

A loud voice came from the hall of the manor that stopped the track of Draco's thoughts. He went to the door, opened it slightly and listened to the man talking about Potter and Hogwarts. He slowly closed the door and shifted his gaze at the ceiling. A big crystal chandelier was hanging from the ceiling. It was full of dust and looked old and used. He looked around his bedroom, it was decorated in green and silver. Family portraits were hanging at the walls next to a library full of books and school supplies. A poster of his favorite quidditch team was hanging on one of the walls with a portrait of his genealogical tree. Draco remembered his childhood and that he wanted his room to be decorated in green and silver even before he was selected as a Slytherin. So many memories hold that room, good and bad ones but now it looked depressing as the windows were closed and the wooden furniture were covered with dust.

He briefly wondered about his school and his friends. He never really liked school, the only think he liked about it was torturing Potter and his friends. But everyone was forced to go back to school, so he had to go. He didn't know how to feel about that, at first the thought of going away of Voldemort and the constant fear of being killed seemed as paradise but then he thought about his parents. He wouldn't be able to keep in touch with them, know if they were alive and safe. He saw the same conflicting emotions mirrored at his mother's eyes.

Draco heard the Death Eaters talking about Potter and expecting him to go back to school but he knew that Potter wasn't that stupid. No matter where he was and what he was doing he wouldn't go back.

**Neville's point of view**

Neville Longbottom glanced nervously at his bedroom, picked up his trunk and the Daily Prophet and closed the door behind him. He was heading down the stairs when he suddenly stopped and opened his newspaper. He knew this year would be different but he never imagined Snape being placed as their headmaster and the Currows as their professors. He knew the Currows, they were there the night Dumbledore died. He closed the newspaper and headed downstairs. His grandmother was waiting for him to come. They exchanged a silent nod and went straight to the train station. Neville arrived at the station a few minutes before the train's departure. At the muggle's part of the station he could see families, friends and lovers waving goodbye to each other some of them smiling, others laughing, others crying. He entered the wizard's part and the image changed suddenly. There were no smiles, no laughs, just silent nods and parents advising their children to stay safe. He could see new faces all around him, most of them were terrified first year students, but there were others too, older ones, he didn't recognize. They had to be the ones that were forced to study to Hogwarts. The new law forced purebloods and half bloods to attend Hogwarts. For the muggle borns there was no option of coming. He looked all around trying to find his friends or a familiar face when he sensed his grandma moving nervously around him. She stared at him and opened her mouth to say something but no words came out. She fixed her hat and took off her gloves.

" Neville , I am sure you understand how different things are right now. You-know-who has taken over the world" she mentioned at the death eaters stationed all around the station, checking for muggle borns " This world is dangerous, you have no idea how dangerous. You need to promise me that you keep yourself out of trouble." Neville tried to stop her but she continued "Your parents wouldn't be happy if you stupidly risked your life"

Neville didn't try to stop her again. They had that conversation all over the summer. He insisted on the need to rebel against the dark forces. He told her that he wouldn't let death eaters hurt his friends but his grandma insisted that he kept himself safe.

" Ok, grams I promise I'll behave as much as I can."

His grandma didn't say anything else, she pulled him in a tight embrace and let him go.

Neville entered the train and looked around for an empty compartment. As he looked around he saw familiar faces, Parvati was talking with Lavender Brown. Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbot ,Terry Boot and Antony Goldstein were standing in front of their compartment reading their newspapers.

He searched for an empty compartment and went towards it. He was greeted by his friends but all he did was nod and throw a smile occasionally not wanting to start a conversation. He entered the empty compartment and pushed his trunk over the top of his seat. He wondered where Ginny, Luna and Seamus were.

He looked outside the train and waved goodbye. He saw a few redheads waving their goodbyes and knew that Ginny was on the train.

Suddenly the compartment door opened and Luna Lovegood came in. She wore a beautiful orange dress and had her weird earrings and necklace on. She smiled at Neville and asked him if he knew where Ginny was but before he got the chance to answer the door opened again and a very tired and worn out Ginny came in. She had lost weight since the last time he saw her and she looked weak and depressed. She greeted them and sat. Before they had a chance to start a conversation the door opened again and Seamus entered the compartment. He looked all around as if asking permission to sit with them and when no one talked he put his trunk over the seat and sat.

" Seamus it's so good to see you here. Did you enjoy your summer?" Luna started chatting the moment he sat at the chair. Seamus looked at her surprised by the attention. " Where's Dean?"

The surprise on Seamus face disappeared immediately and was replaced by worry and anger.

" I haven't talked to him since summer. He's… he's not coming. He was called at the ministry to prove that he is half-blood but he didn't have any proofs since his dad left them so he fled."

Neville looked at his friend. He was expecting this to happen so it didn't surprise him. Many students were not attending this year and some of them had to flee the country.

He saw Ginny staring at Seamus and he knew what she was thinking of. Everyone noticed the absence of students but _one_ absence was clear enough for everyone to see. Harry Potter was not coming back. As if reading her thoughts he whispered to his friends.

" I knew _he_ wouldn't come. I was expecting this to happen. Do you have any idea where he could be?"

Ginny looked around the compartment as if expecting someone else to be there, listening to them and whispered.

" I have no idea where _they _are. They left at Bill's wedding party…"

Neville immediately understood the word '_they_' and he knew the others did too. Hermione and Ron were with Harry.

" So they are with him aren't they? Hidding!"

Ginny looked around again and this time they could barely hear her words.

" Dumbledore gave him a mission. Something he needs to do, they choose to go with him." She saw Seamus opening his mouth to ask the next question but she answered before he did. " No one knows what this mission is all about. Not even the Order."

Neville didn't have to ask, he knew what the mission was. Harry had to kill Voldemort.

" Did you read about Snape? I can't believe it, that snake will be our new headmaster."

" I couldn't believe it either, when my dad told me the news I was shocked. Do you believe that it's going to be worse than with Ambridge?"

" Luna, Ambridge was a childish game next to Snape and the Currows."

" Then I am happy I am with you guys. I am happy that you came. I couldn't bare it to be alone."

No one answered. Seamus opened his newspaper and started reading, Ginny looked outside the window and Neville stared at his trunk. Luna sighed, clearly not getting any reply to her comment and opened her dad's newspaper.

_**Ginny's**____**point**____**of**____**view**_

Ginny Weasley looked outside her dad's car, trying to calm down her nerves by distracting herself. The day had come that she had to go back to school and she couldn't be more nervous. Normally Ginny would be looking forward for the new school year but this time everything was different. Death Eaters ruled the world. She listened to her mum talking about school supplies and keeping herself safe and nodded when needed but her mind was travelling to her boyfriend. She wondered where he was and why he couldn't tell her the truth.

The day of the wedding she woke up knowing that they would leave. They stayed there just for the wedding but no matter what her mom did to slow them down, they had plans and they would leave. Every day she was glancing at Ron, Hermione and Harry and no matter how tired they were most of the time due to constantly helping her mom with the house duties she could _see_ the change in them. Hermione wasn't talking about classes and books, Ron wasn't being silly as always. They had all changed, they wore 'masks' on their faces trying to look calm but she could easily see through them, she could see the worried and scared look on their faces. They weren't the care-free teenagers they used to be, their eyes were clouded, full of secrets and worries. Harry of course never was the care- free teenager but even he looked more worried than ever.

_She_ _knew_ _they_ _would_ _leave_ _and_ s_h_e _couldn't_ _do_ _anything_ _about_ _it_. She thought of begging them to take her with them, she even tried to subtly ask Hermione about their plans but when she saw the clouded, full of worries look come back to her eyes she stopped, she didn't want to put any more distress at her friend.

Ginny snapped back at reality when her mother pushed her forward. They were at the train station. She heard her mom advising her again and again to be careful but she didn't really listen. She looked around and saw familiar faces and new faces. People were missing but she didn't care, the only ones that mattered to her were not there.

Ginny hugged her parents back and promised to be careful and went to the train. She was searching for an empty compartment, she didn't want to talk to anyone but when she saw Neville and Luna inside one of them, she opened the door. Harry wasn't there but at least they were, Seamus came after a while and they started talking about Snape, Dean and Harry. At the mention of her boyfriend Ginny felt a pain at her chest but she pushed it away and continued chatting with her friends.

An hour later or a few minutes later, she couldn't tell, the train suddenly stopped. She looked around acknowledging that something wasn't going right. They only time the train had ever stopped was at her second year, with the dementors. Seamus opened the door and looked outside. Others had opened their doors too trying to find out why they stopped. Suddenly the train shook violently and Seamus was thrown back at his seat. After a few agonizing moments the door opened and two men came inside. One of them, the taller one, she recognized by the newspaper, he was a death eater. They looked around and then looked at her, expecting her to say something or do something, she couldn't tell.

Neville stood up and faced the tall man.

" _Hey_, _losers_! He isn´t _here_…"

The tall man glanced back at Neville and walked out of the compartment.

_**So that's the end of the first chapter, I hope you like it, please review and tell me what you think. The story is going to be told by many points of view.**_

_**Next chapter : A new school… ( Our heroes begin their new year at school..)**_


	2. The Great Hall

_**DRACO'S POINT OF VIEW**_

Draco Malfoy closed the door of the carriage that was carrying him, Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy at school and grabbed his trunk. His friends looked happier than ever, smiling, laughing and pushing younger students away of them. However, Draco wasn't sharing their joy. He wasn't even looking at the castle, his gaze was fixed on the carriages. All this years he never ever wondered how the carriages kept moving all the way to Hogwarts but now he could _see._ Thestrals, dark, skinny and scary thestrals were carrying the carriages and he knew why he could see them. He saw someone _dying, _that's what the giant _thing_ said, Hagrid, when he introduced them to the creatures. Of course, Draco couldn't see anything and he accused his professor of being stupid for showing them something they couldn't see. But now he could _see_ and looking all around he saw other students staring at the skinny creatures, surprise and fear mirrored on their faces.

Pansy grabbed his arm and pushed him forward, they entered the hall and sat at their seats at Slytherin's table. The Slytherin table was almost full of students but at Ravenclaw there were some empty seats, at Gryffindor more empty seats and at Hufflepuff half of the seats were empty.

Draco scanned the Gryffindor table and saw Weasley and Longbottom sitting with Finnegan, whispering something to each other. Weasley's gaze was fixed at the professor's table and he knew that she was staring at Severus Snape.

The new Headmaster of the school.

_**AT THE HUFFLEPUFF TABLE**_

Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott were talking about their new school year and the fact that Snape would be their new headmaster.

Ernie never really hated Snape or any other professor but seeing him sitting at the chair of the man he murdered was driving him insane. He knew well to not believe Daily Prophet's story about Potter killing Dumbledore at the Astronomy Tower, he doubted Potter too many times in the past but he knew that the boy could never kill Dumbledore. He knew that Potter had a special connection with the headmaster and he was the only one he ever heard being addressed by his first name and not his last name.

The headmaster ordered them to be quiet and started talking about their new school year. He introduced the new professors, the Carrows and told them to not in any circumstances try to enter the forbidden forest or do anything reckless or they would be punished. He closed his speech by advising everyone to address him if they knew anything about Harry Potter. And threatened them that if they knew anything and didn't talk they would be punished, without mercy. Snape kept looking at the Gryffindor table and in particular at Ginny and Longbottom. Ernie expected Ginny to lower her gaze but she didn't, she kept looking at him with stubbornness written all over her face.

The sorting hat ceremony started and more and more students were going to Slytherin.

Ernie ate his pie and beans and told Hannah that he wanted to sleep.

They went inside their common room, which was located next to the kitchens and Ernie went straight to bed but after a few minutes of trying to sleep he gave up and went back to the common room.

Hannah Abbott was sitting in a couch, holding a cup of tea and a newspaper.

Hannah didn't seem to acknowledge his presence but after several minutes she broke the silence.

" Did you see her face?" Ginny Weasley's face. Did you see it when Snape was talking about Potter?"

" Yeah, I did…"

" _The_ _Gryffindor's_ _are_ _starting_ _their_ _resistance_"

Ernie who was drinking a cup of tea and eating some homemade cookies nearly chocked at the statement. He didn't know how to react because frankly he didn't know what to think. He saw the stubbornness on Ginny's face and he knew how much she hated Snape. But starting a resistance? That was insane.

Hannah put her cup of tea at the small table and looked straight at Ernie's eyes.

" You'll see it. The Gryffindor's are starting their resistance"

She gave Ernie a small hug, took several cookies with her and left.

_**GINNY'S POINT OF VIEW**_

Ginny entered the great hall and found an empty seat at the Gryffindor's table next to Neville and Seamus. Unfortunately Luna could not seat with them since she was a Ravenclaw. Parvati and Lavender Brown joined them after a second, Ginny wasn't happy seeing Lavender sitting next to them but she couldn't do anything to send her away.

She saw professor Sprout and professor Flitwick sitting next to Slughorn. She never liked that spoiled prat, he was too obsessed with meeting famous and powerful people but even he didn't irritate her that particular moment.

She spotted the Carrows at the table laughing and talking loudly and felt frustrated and ready to jump out of her seat and knock them out of that table.

Later the snake, Snape started talking about the new rules of the school and introduced the new 'professors'. Ginny breathed deeply trying to calm herself down, she felt Neville's hand resting on hers and turned to see him looking at her with worried eyes. She nodded that she was ok and turned her head back to the teachers table. Snape continued talking about rules and then changed completely the subject and started talking about Harry, _her _Harry.

That made Ginny absolutely furious, Snape didn't only take Dumbledore's position as the headmaster and sat proudly at this seat but dared to talk about Harry as he was the criminal, the dangerous one.

She felt her hands shaking and her eyes started shooting fire. Snape was looking straight at their table but she didn't give in. She returned the gaze in a way that made Snape freeze for a second.

She felt Neville moving next to her and turned to see the boy's face red and filled with frustration. His eyes looked menacing and his body was shaking uncontrollably. She squeezed his hand trying to reassure him that he wasn't the only one feeling that way. Even Seamus looked at Snape with hate pictured at his eyes.

Snape ended his speech by ordering for the doors to open and the first year students to come in.

Ginny saw professor Macgonagall entering the hall accompanied by several young students. She looked fierce as always walking down the corridor and asking for the first year students to wait for their names being called. Ginny looked more carefully at her professor. She looked aged and tired but other than that she was still the same Minerva Macgonagall she met the first year she came to Hogwarts.

Ginny was happy to see her there.

They tried to change her school, they tried to change her world but as long as Minerva Macgonagall was still there, Hogwarts would always be Hogwarts.

The sorting hat began singing, Ginny expected it to say something different now that the times had changed but she guessed that it was charmed to just sing the song. The sorting began and more and more children were sorted to Slytherin. Every time a student was sorted to Gryffindor she listened to her housemates cheering and clapping but she didn't move her hands, she couldn't find the strength. Seamus clapped and cheered and talked to the new students, she wondered how he could be that happy when the world was ending.

Neville gave her a small smile and whispered:

" Don't misjudge him… he's seeking a sense of normality in this new world. We are all seeking a sense of normality."

The sorting ended and food appeared all over the place. She saw Seamus stuffing down some pie and meat but she didn't touch her plate.

She looked all around the hall and saw Luna sitting next to a small girl. She wasn't talking to anyone or eating, she was staring intensively at Snape and the Carrows. She saw Terry Boot and her ex boyfriend Michael Corner, Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott who was strangely staring at her.

The dinner ended and they all headed towards their common rooms, no one seemed to be in the mood of chatting or playing a chess game so the students went straight to their bedrooms. Seamus and Neville were talking quietly at the corner of the common room.

" I never imagined saying that but I miss the old times. Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! "

Ginny thought for a second that Seamus had lost his mind but then Neville laughed.

" Come on Ginny, don't you remember? The first words he said to us when we came to Hogwarts! Ohhh right I always forget you weren't going to school back then. It was our first year. Dumbledore said that and everyone thought that he was nuts"

Neville and Seamus continued grinning but the smile fainted at the mention of their old headmaster.

" I'll go to my room, I am tired"

Ginny went upstairs to the girl's room and sat at the bed without taking her robes off. She thought of Harry, Ron and Hermione. She worried about them, not knowing what they were doing, if they were alive and safe. She thought of Snape and the Carrows and the way her life changed so suddenly. She thought of what would Harry do if he was there, he would rebel, he would resist, she thought of the D.A and Neville and Luna.

Ginny shifted her body and laid her head at the soft pillow, wishing she would have a dreamless sleep.

_**NEVILLE'S POINT OF VIEW**_

Neville and Seamus were left alone at the common room. Seamus said something about being tired so they went to sleep.

Neville opened the bedroom's door and expected Harry, Ron and Dean to be sitting on their beds chatting and saying jokes. But what he saw was heartbreaking. The room was empty, their beds were neat and organized and no voices could be heard.

Seamus looked uncomfortable and nervous, he missed his friend.

" It's so quiet, yeah? Do you think they are safe?"

Neville didn't reply, he stopped next to his bed and took off his clothes.

The next morning, Neville woke up with a terrible headache. He expected his grandma to storm into his room but he remembered that he was back at school and the one snoring loudly was not his grandma but Seamus.

He wondered how he could sleep that easily, he had slept only a few hours and kept waking up every hour.

Neville put on his clothes and woke up Seamus. They got ready and went to the common room where professor Macgonagall was waiting for them. She was holding a pile of papers and other documents and looked strictly professional.

" As you all know, I am here to give you your schedules. From now on every one of you has to attend Muggle studies and there's nothing I can do to stop that from happening so please take your schedules without complaining. Mr. Longbottom and Mrs. Weasley please come here and take your new budges. You are from this moment the perfects of Gryffindor. I trust you to follow the orders and behave. As for everyone else, my children, this is a dangerous world we are living in" Neville saw the professor taking off her glasses and looking at everyone carefully. Her face wasn't strictly professional anymore, it was apologetic and tired. " You need to behave, you can't do reckless things. I am afraid that even us, the professors, won't be able to help you. We are not in a better position than you are. So _please_ behave and take care of each other. Thank you"

Neville's first class was herbology and it was with Hufflepuff. At least he didn't have to see the Slytherins and Draco Malfoy.

_**As I've already mentioned this story is focused mainly at the inner thoughts and emotions of each character this is why I didn't write Snape's speech. (Many fan fictions have already done that).**_

_**I put Ernie and Hannah to my story because it seemed interesting to show their side of the story. Also Hannah's comment about the Gryffindors starting their resistance will change the course of things at later chapters.**_

_**P.S if you watched the deathly hallows part 1 you too saw the scene where Hermione is taking care of Ron's arm and we can't see the pain painted on Ron's face but we 'sense' it and 'understand' it through Hermione's reactions. I found that part of the movie thrilling and decided to do the same. We never really see Neville's thoughts during Snape's speech but we get the feeling by Ginny's descriptions.**_

_**P.S Do you think that it is too tiring to read all those different points of view?**_

_**Thank you for all of your reviews, they fill me with joy. Please feel free to write any comment, even negative ones. I take really seriously my writing and want to improve as much as I can.**_

_**Sarah B I understand what you are saying, it´s difficult to present the events exactly like they happened but still write something completely new since the events have never been written at the deathly hallows but only implied.**_


	3. Ginny

_**Thanks so much for your amazing reviews, I took your comments into consideration and every time a point of view changes you´ll get it by the *** **_

(_**September 2**__**nd**__**)**_ Ginny Weasley entered the muggle studies classroom. The room was small but spacious at the same time, dim light came from the windows and magic candles were flying at the ceiling. Carrow was already there, holding several books and papers. She didn't seem happy to be there.

She gave a book to each one of the students and explained that the books were approved by the ministry and were brand new.

Ginny frowned at the statement and pushed her book away. It was a small book and it showed a wizard's family being hunted by muggles who looked dirty and ugly, it was disgusting how they were twisting everything.

Ginny saw Luna raising her hand and waiting for Carrow to notice her.

" Yes…"

" Luna, Luna Lovegood. I was wondering professor why do the muggles look dirty?"

" That's _actually_ a good question. They look dirty and ugly because that's how they are. This year you'll know the truth behind muggles and their history and you'll see that they are animals, dirty, ugly animals."

Ginny noticed that a few Ravenclaws and Gryffindors were taking notes, she couldn't believe how stupid people could be, believing the words of a death eater.

After a few minutes Carrow started pacing between the students, asking questions, she stopped next to Ginny's table, lowered her head and whispered.

" Weasley, how's your brother? Still scarred? I've heard he got married, such a shame for his wedding party to be destroyed"

Ginny Weasley wasn't angry or frustrated, Ginny Weasley wanted to _kill_ someone. _For_ _the_ _first_ _time_ _in_ _her_ _life_, _she_ _wanted_ _to_ _inflict_ _pain_.

" Don't you dare talk about my brother!"

" It seems that you don't know who I am"

"Oh I do, _wasn't_ _your_ _little_ _tour_, _at_ _the_ _astronomy_ _tower_ _last_ _year,_ _enough_ _for_ _you_? Did you have to come back to visit us?"

Silence fell into the class, everyone knew what happened at the astronomy tower. Did that mean that Alecto Carrow was there the night Dumbledore died?

" How dare you? Do you want me to punish you, ha, is that what you want?"

" You have _already_ tried to _kill_ me once, I don't think that any punishment would be worse than that."

Carrow was struggling to not take her wand out of her pocket and curse the girl, but she quickly pulled herself together.

" Detention, Mrs. Weasley. I expect you to be there at eight sharp. Class dismissed."

Ginny stormed outside the class, banging the door loudly. After a few seconds she heard Luna calling her name.

" Ginny why did you do that for? Talking like that to a professor, that was crazy!"

"Don't you call her that way, damn it! What´s wrong with you? Don't you understand who she is? She is not a _professor_ for Merlin's sake, she is a _death_ _eater_"

Luna didn't have time to react in any way Ginny had already left. She went straight to her bedroom and locked herself in, she heard Neville begging her to come down and talk to him but Ginny was too frustrated to chat and stayed at her room. She had no lunch or dinner that day.

At eight she went to Carrow's office for her detention, she found Carrow holding her wand, Crabbe and Goyle standing next to her with a few other Slytherins.

" Welcome, Mrs. Weasley."

" What are _they_ doing here?"

"Oh, they are here for educational purposes. Now, go and stand in front of Crabbe"

Crabbe raised his wand and cast a cruciatus spell on her. The spell wasn't powerful, it just knocked Ginny at the floor.

" Try again, this time, really want it"

Crabbe tried again and this time Ginny felt a sharp pain all over her body. Her knees went weak and she collapsed at the floor. Her body hurt like hell, her bones felt heavy and her skin was on fire but she didn't cry or beg them to stop, she would never do that.

"I see you are holding up, again Crabbe, again!"

Ginny felt her body being on fire again but she didn't wince not even once.

(_**September 3**__**rd**__**)**_ Next day the whole school knew about Ginny's detention. Everyone kept staring at her but the only ones that came to talk to her were Neville and Luna.

" Is that true Ginny? Did she use the cruciatus spell on you?"

" No she didn't , Crabbe did. He was there to 'help' her. It seems like the Slytherins will enjoy this year a lot"

" Using an unforgiveable spell on you. I will kill him Ginny. I will kill him with my own hands."

" Neville please try to calm down, killing him wouldn't fix anything, right, Ginny?"

" Yeah she is right, you're only get yourself killed."

"Are you still angry with me?"

" _Angry_? Oh no, Luna I wasn't angry with you. I was angry with Carrow."

" But you yelled at me."

" Yeah, I know, I am really sorry. It's just that, sometimes you are so naïve."

" Oh I know that. Can we have lunch outside today? I've found a place for us to sit and I need you to see something"

The three of went outside the castle and found a remote place near the lake to sit and have lunch. Ginny looked at the lake, it hold so many memories, memories of her and Harry sitting there, holding hands and cuddling. She wished he was there with her.

Luna opened the Quibbler and started reading.

"September 2nd: Ministry employees Mafalda Hopkrik, Reginald Cattermole and Albert Runcorn had supposedly stunned Dolores Ambridge and freed several muggle borns brought for interrogation at the ministry of magic. It seems like three intruders were disguised as the ministry employees as two of them were found later stunned, laying at a place near the ministry and one of them, Reginald Cattermole is missing, our sources report that he left the country with his muggle born wife, who was freed by the three intruders during her interrogation. Three intruders, do you think that it's Harry, Ron and Hermione?"

" It could be, but why would they go at the ministry now that Harry is undesirable number 1 ?"

" I don't know, maybe to save the muggle borns?"

" Do you think that they captured him?"

" No I don't think so, if they did, everyone would know. It would be on the cover of Daily Prophet but it doesn't even mention it."

" So are they trying to conceal the event?"

" Yeah, they wouldn't want anyone to know that there are people fighting against the dark forces, against what they are doing."

"I am sure you are right but shouldn't people be informed about this? Not everyone is reading the Quibbler"

Immediately they started thinking ideas of how to copy the Quibbler and let everyone read it. Luna came up with the idea of transigurating the magazine to look like flyers. The difficult part was distributing it all around school without getting caught.

_**Chapter 3-done! **_

_**I've done my research and according to the book and sites, the school year starts at September 1**__**st **__**( Sorting hat ceremony) and the infiltration of the ministry by Harry, Hermione and Ron was on the second day of September.**_


	4. The Quibbler

_**Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.**_

_**Mark Twain.**_

Neville, Luna and Ginny met at the library trying to figure out how to distribute the Quibbler which was successfully multiplied and transfigurated by Luna to look like flyers. They spent hours and hours thinking of places.

They thought of the Great Hall but it was too dangerous since Snape and the Carrows would be there. They thought of the corridors outside the classes, but this way they would have to separate from each other. They thought of distributing it at their common rooms. The Gryffindors and the Ravenclaws would know the truth but there was no way for them to get inside Hufflepuff's common room, except if they worked with one of them. They could easily talk to Hannah or Ernie but they didn't want to put their friends in danger.

Neville thought of Harry, Hermione and Ron and how they used to form their plans so easily. He remembered them at his first year trying to save the Philosopher's stone, he remembered them thinking of a way to go to the ministry of magic and he felt useless. He knew that it wasn't their fault; Luna had the brains of Hermione even though she appeared to be crazy and Ginny was brave like Harry, but he wasn't brave or smart. He was scared to death every time he walked next to Snape, he was scared that Snape would somehow read his mind and know about his plan. He wanted to act but he was afraid to do it. He was a coward.

Luna as always sensed his inner battle and told him that it didn't matter how scared he felt.

"Neville it's ok for you to be scared, we are all scared and unsure of what we are about to do. Being brave doesn't mean feeling no fear, it means overcoming it. It means that even though you are scared to death, you do what you have to do."

Neville thanked Luna for being there for him and tried to pull himself together.

He knew that the majority of the students had muggle born friends, who were hiding from the ministry and they were worried about them, as much as he was worried about Hermione and Dean. He knew that knowing that his friends were alive and safe, would help him get through any situation; it would give him hope and strength. The mere thought of giving that hope and strength to other people made Neville smile.

Finally after days and days of planning they decided to distribute the copies at their common rooms at Saturday morning. The Hufflepuffs would eventually know about Quibbler's article from their Gryffindor and Ravenclaw friends.

He thought that they should have some sort of alibi. Ginny would throw the flyers around the common room and run to the library to meet Luna, they would pretend to be studying for their classes. As for Neville he would ask professor Sprout for additional herbology classes. This way no one would ever suspect him and even if Snape accused him of distributing the flyers he would have Sprout defending him.

Seamus Finnegan stirred up and opened his eyes, it was Saturday morning, and he had no classes. For a moment he thought of asking Dean if he wanted to play magic chess or have a walk outside the castle, but he remembered that Dean wasn't there, he was hiding away, trying to save his life.

Seamus put his clothes on and went to the common room looking for Neville, Parvati or Lavender. The common room was filled with flyers, lying all around the floor or flying up to the air. They appeared to be about Quidditch but the moment he grabbed one it changed into a newspaper. He thought that it was some kind of joke but he decided to read it. It was the Quibbler, Lovegood´s newspaper. He highly disliked that newspaper, it only talked about animals that didn´t even exist. At the front page of the newspaper he could see a large picture of the ministry of magic and the title said that it was infiltrated by intruders. After a few minutes Lavender and Parvati joined him, they were both reading their newspapers and exchanging worried glances.

Soon the whole school knew about what happened at the ministry. At dinner Snape told them that the article was rubbish and whoever distributed it would be punished. Clearly he had no idea who did that so he punished them all by cancelling Hogsmeade weekend trips and Quidditch games.

Seamus looked at the Ravenclaw table and saw Luna Lovegood stirring up at the word 'rubbish' but she didn't do anything to defend her father, she glanced down and kept eating. Neville and Ginny didn't react either.

Later at the common room everyone was talking about Snape's new rules. Parvati thought that they were extremely similar to the ones Umbridge imposed a few years ago.

He participated at the conversation, complaining about Snape and the new professors but he got tired eventually and decided to go to his room. Inside he found Neville sitting at his bed, reading a book about plants.

"Hey mate, where have you been all day?"

"I had herbology."

"But we don't have class today…"

"I know, I asked professor Sprout for an additional one."

"Who are you? Hermione Granger? So what do you think of Snape's new rules? Can you believe the man? He decided to punish us all about a rubbish article"

Neville stopped reading his book and looked at Seamus.

"The Quibbler isn't rubbish."

"I know that Lovegood is your friend but come on! You believe a newspaper that talks about Blubbering Humdingers?"

"It's Blibbering Humdingers and yes I do! What other options do I have, the Daily Prophet? How can you believe a word of it? Or do you believe that Harry killed Dumbledore at the astronomy tower?"

Seamus felt offended by Neville's accusations, he knew that he had doubted Harry before but he would never ever believe that he killed Dumbledore. Harry wasn't a murderer.

"I never believed that! I know I doubted Harry but…"

"You don't need to explain yourself. I shouldn't accuse you!"

"Did you see all the flyers around the common room? Only the Hufflepuffs and Slytherins didn't know about it. Do you believe that the one that distributed them was a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw?"

"I have no idea."

Seamus looked at his friend and wondered if he was the mind behind it. But why would Neville risk getting punished?

"Hmm, a ministry infiltration. Who could possibly do that?"

"I have no idea."

"I thought that the ministry was powerful enough to stop anyone from infiltrating it"

"It is huge and powerful but it's not that difficult to get inside."

"How could you know? Oh right!"

"Night."

"Night!"

Neville was at the ministry of magic, he fought against Death Eaters. Whoever did that already knew the risks of getting inside the ministry and possibly already done that before. Could it be Harry? It talked about three intruders, could they be Harry, Ron and Hermione sending a message to the ministry?

_**I always loved to memorize famous quotes of authors, philosopher's etc. so I decided to incorporate them to my story. Every chapter will start with a quote that will describe what the chapter is about or enhance it, by adding something more.**_

_**Hope you like the idea.**_

_**I wasn't sure if the Hogwarts students knew what happened at the ministry of magic, I searched the web but didn´t find any references.**_

_**Neville never mentioned to Harry, Ron and Hermione when exactly Snape decided to prohibit visiting Hogsmeade and playing Quidditch. So I decided to improvise a bit.**_

_**P.S There are no classes at Saturdays, I've searched it. (At the books we see Hermione studying at Saturdays and Ron and Harry playing chess)**_


	5. The spider

_**Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one who inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.**_

_**Mark Twain.**_

Neville Longbottom patiently waited for his Defense against Dark Arts class to start. The class was shared with the slytherins and he wasn't particularly happy to see any of them, especially Malfoy. After what happened at the astronomy tower he found himself hating Malfoy more than ever. He led the death eaters inside their school, he tried to kill Dumbledore and he had the nerve to come back, like nothing happened. Neville looked around, trying to track down Malfoy but he wasn't there.

All around him people were talking about the Quibbler. Neville smiled to himself, knowing that it was due to him that everyone knew about the ministry infiltration. Students were talking quietly about their muggle friends and the possibilities of them being at the ministry, the day the infiltration happened. Others wished that the muggle borns were able to flee the country and were hiding away with their families. Only the Slytherins seemed to not care about the Quibbler. Crabbe and Goyle were laughing and Pansy Parkinson was talking about Draco acting strangely lately.

Amycus Carrow entered the classroom and ordered everyone to stop talking and take their wands out. Neville carefully examined Amycus, he was squat and lumpy with pallid doughy face that resembled a pig. Much like his sister, his eyes were tiny and his gaze was cold and piercing.

Slytherins and Gryffindors took their wands out of their pockets and waited for the professor to start talking. From the corner of his eye, Neville saw Draco Malfoy sitting next to Pansy Parkinson. Malfoy merely spared him a look and glanced down. Normally he would arrogantly strut about his father and his family or try to bully the Gryffindors but he was strangely quiet this year. Neville didn't see him at the great hall during meals or at the corridors of the castle, nor did he see him enter the classroom.

Amycus started talking about the importance of knowing the right spells to use in each and every occasion. He asked them if they knew any of the unforgivable curses, immediately Crabbe raised his hand and answered the question. Carrow smiled to Crabbe and asked him if he knew how to use them. Crabbe told him that he tried to use the cruciatus spell before but he wasn't good at it so Carrow suggested that he practiced it during the class.

Neville saw the Gryffindors looking at each other, Parvati whispered something and raised her hand.

"Yes, and who would you be?"

"Parvati Patil, sir, I was wondering, are we allowed to use the unforgivable curses? I mean aren't they unforgivable after all?"

"The ministry thinks that you are at the right age to learn how to use them. Now, Crabbe here will help me demonstrate the cruciatus spell."

Amycus took a spider of his pocket and placed it at Crabbe's desk.

"Crucio" he whispered and the spider started jerking violently.

For a moment Neville forgot where he was, he found himself at the same class but with Moody standing in front of him, using the same spell at a spider. Neville flinched and came back to reality.

"No! Stop it! Don't you see that it's in pain?"

Neville looked around not acknowledging where the words came from. He was standing in front of everyone with his wand raised and his mouth open. The words clearly came from his mouth. Amycus had stopped torturing the spider and was holding his own wand, aiming it at Neville.

"Are you scared Longbottom? Will you run to your mommy?"

Neville was furious, Carrow knew what happened to his parents and was making fun of it. He was about to respond when Seamus stopped him, forcing him to sit down.

"You don't wanna be punished like Ginny, don't you?"

"Wise decision, Longbottom. You should never again interrupt my lesson or you'll get punished. You are safe this time."

Neville pushed Seamus hand away and sat down. He didn't understand why Carrow didn't punish him, he thought that interrupting him would get him a detention. Carrow started torturing the spider again, this time describing how to efficiently torture someone.

"To successfully perform this curse, you need to want to cause pain. If you don't really desire to cause pain you will be able to only knock down someone or cause a brief moment of pain not inflict prolonged, excruciating pain. Your turn, Crabbe!"

Crabbe raised his wand and cursed the little spider, causing it to twitch slightly.

"You'll learn how to use it more efficiently with time. Who else wants to try?"

Neville saw the Slytherins looking at each other, the Gryffindors didn't make an effort to raise their hands, they all looked disgusted. Parvati was holding Lavender who was sobbing quietly and Seamus was looking at Neville, waiting for him to stand up again and face the professor.

Goyle joined Crabbe and Amycus took another spider out of his pocket, they both used the curse but the spiders only twitched and moved from side to side.

Neville closed his eyes, forcing the image out of his mind but the agonizing ´screams´ that came from the spiders didn't help him forget where he was, what was happening in front of him. Neville's mind drifted back to the time Hermione had stopped Professor Moody from using the curse, sensing that it bothered him. His mind started spinning uncontrollably and different images flashed through his mind. His parents, Moody, Hermione defending him, the ministry of magic, Bellatrix Lestrange mocking him, Ginny's detention…

"I said stop it! Stop it, now!"

"Longbottom, it seems that you didn't understand what I told you. You should never interrupt my class."

Amycus raised his wand and Neville thought that he would curse him, but the death eater didn't curse him. With a small movement of his wand, a cut appeared to his cheek and blood started spilling out of it.

"That will teach you, now sit down!"

Neville touched his cheek and brought his fingers in front of his eyes, they were red with blood. Seamus tried to help him somehow but Parvati was the one that conjured a small handkerchief and gave it to him.

"Did I tell you to help him Mrs. Patil? Now, Crabbe try again!"

Neville looked at Parvati and silently thanked her for helping him, she nodded and smiled. The rest of the class went without any kind of interruptions. Crabbe and Goyle tried over and over again to make the spider jerk violently but they didn't make it. Pansy Parkinson tried too but she did worse than the two boys, the spider only moved an inch. The Slytherins seemed eager to learn more about the unforgivable curses, the only one that didn't seem to be interested was Malfoy. During the class he was staring at his desk or at the ceiling, his gaze was shady and distant and it seemed like, mentally, he wasn't in the classroom.

When the class ended they all went straight to the great hall for their lunch break. Neville listened to his classmates asking him if he was alright, he smiled kindly and told them that he was fine. He searched the great hall for Luna or Ginny but didn't see any of them. Professor Macgonagall came to him too, asking him if he was feeling alright and if he needed any help. She told him to go to madam Pomfrey but Amycus told her that students weren't allowed to go to madam Pomfrey after their punishments. Macgonagall eyed the man with pure hatred and left Neville alone.

Neville didn't feel like eating or talking to any of his classmates so he excused himself and left the great hall. He went to his dormitory and as soon as his head hit the pillow, he fell asleep. He dreamed of his mother sitting next to him at the Defense against Dark Arts class, she was smiling and hugging him. Soon the dream changed, his mother was at the floor, blood spilling out of her mouth, Bellatrix Lestrange was hovering above her, laughing hysterically.

Neville screamed and opened his eyes, expecting to see Bellatrix but he saw Ginny sitting next to him, watching him sleep. He quickly pulled himself together and pulled the blanket over his body, Ginny must have brought it with her and covered him up while sleeping.

"Shush Neville! It's just a nightmare! How are you feeling?"

"Hahh! What, what are you doing here? How did you get in?"

"Seamus told me what happened, I came to see if you were feeling ok but you were sleeping. Luna wanted to come too, but she isn't allowed to come in."

"I am fine, it's just a cut."

"Here take it, madam Pomfrey gave me it to me!"

Neville took the potion the nurse made for him and drank it. A warm, pleasant feeling spread inside him and he felt his body relaxing.

"Thanks, but it's just a cut!"

"I know!"

"So stop worrying!"

"It's not just you i am worried about. They are teaching us how to use the cruciatus spell and the school year just started Neville, I dread to think what will happen over the next months!"

"Hmmm, did you have a Defense against Dark Arts class yet?"

"No, I didn't but Luna did, she said it was awful. But strange thing, he didn't teach them how to use the cruciatus, yet"  
>"Crabbe mentioned it, he said he had trouble with it."<p>

"So, that pig is the reason behind it."

"It would happen eventually! They are death eaters after all!"

Neville saw his friend getting worried again and he tried to change the subject.

"So how did you get in? I recall the boys trying to get inside your dormitories and not being able to"

"Well yeah, the founders made it this way, you can't come in, but we can."

"That's not fair! Come on, I am sure the lunch break is over and I can't let Professor Macgonagall waiting, can i?"

"Yeah, you are right! Let's go!"

_**Chapter 5 done!**_

_**Hope that my writing skills improved a bit! Enjoy!**_


	6. Dealing with the situation

_**The reason I started this story is because I found myself wanting to see the emotional evolution of the characters, wanting to see how their lives and personalities changed, day by day, while sticking up to the main events. Hard thing to do of course, as you mentioned it in your reviews I rushed things a bit at Ginny's detention, it was written in 3-4 lines and didn't let you connect with her. I didn't want to make this story last for 50 chapters so I tried to rush things a bit and make the trio restart the D.A in chapters 6-7 but then I've read this story .net/s/7428348/1/Insomnia and the way the author wrote it blew me away, it is so slow and steady, so emotional and heart breaking, so insightful that I just couldn't introduce the D.A that quickly. I know that Ginny and Neville got punished but that wouldn't push them into restarting the D.A and wouldn't make everyone else wanting to join either. So I'll try to write this slowly and steady and as insightful as I can.**_

_**At the end of the day, I prefer having 10 people reading this story and loving it, than 200 people reading it because it's a short one and doesn't tire them out.**_

_**(Sorry for the long introduction, hope you agree with me)**_

_**In times of darkness all you need is a good friend.**_

_**Marlene Caravel.**_

_Ginny batted her _eyelashes_, trying to adjust to the dim lighting coming from the window, she opened the curtains and flipped her legs over the edge of the bed, slowly she got up and went to the bathroom. The bathroom was filled with _steams_, a sign that someone had already used it. Ginny opened the sink and washed her face, she glanced at the mirror and saw her reflaxion staring back at her. Her face looked aged and she looked like she hadn't slept for days. She didn't waste any more time looking at her reflaxion, she poured more water at her face and closed the sink, _grabbed her freshly ironed school robes and put them on top of her shirt and skirt. When she made sure that she looked decent she stepped outside the bathroom and headed to her class.

Ginny attended each and every one of the classes that day but wasn't mentally there, she was thinking of Neville and Luna, she was afraid that they would somehow provoke the Carrows and get punished. She didn't have time to see Luna, since the young Ravenclaw had to study for her transfiguration class and ended up studying inside the Ravenclaw common room. She didn't have much time to talk with Neville either. He also had to study for his herbology class. Professor Sprout thought of him as one of the most talented students in herbology and she gave him several books to read, this way Neville would learn more things about his favorite subject. Ginny of course knew that behind that reason, there was another one. Professor Sprout appreciated him and it was only natural for her to worry for him after his argument with Carrow, giving Neville a book to read would be a great way to take his mind off the events.

Frankly Ginny didn't do much that day, she attended her classes and took notes, talked with Demelza Robins and avoided Snape and the Carrows, but then the night came and she didn't have anything else to do. She wondered if Neville was already sleeping and if she could visit him in his dormitory. Seamus was at the common room, playing magic chess with Jimmy Peakes and Colin Creevey, so that left Neville alone inside his room.

Ginny left her bedroom and went down the stairs towards the common room. Seamus was still playing magic chess and he didn't notice her, so Ginny made her way towards the dormitories unnoticed.

Ginny cautiously opened the door, trying to not wake up Neville. Once again__she found herself watching her best friend sleeping, he looked utterly peaceful and Ginny took a moment to appreciate it. She couldn't remember the last time she saw him this way. Over the last days things had gone worse and worse, the Carrows never hesitated to punish anyone that was opposing them and since she and Neville were the only ones, they got punished all the time. She looked at Neville's face, scratches and cuts were over his cheek and under his eyes, she traced his cuts with her finger and promised that she would never ever let anyone touch him again.

Not wanting to accidently wake him up, she left his side and sat at Harry's former bed. Instinctively she run her fingers over the soft unused pillows and the red velvet sheets and sighed. Her mind travelled to her ex-boyfriend and she wondered where he was and what he was doing. She wished that he was fine and that he was thinking of her, just like she was thinking of him.

As Neville stirred up and opened his eyes, Ginny stood up and went closer to him and he moved a bit to create some space for her to sit.

"You're alright?"

"Yeah, just tired, you?"

"Fine"

"Why don't I believe you?"

She sighed loudly and shook her head trying to stop the tears forming in her eyes. She never cried and she didn´t want to cry that particular moment. She was supposed to be the tough one.

"I am just scared that you and Luna will say something and get yourselves punished, you know how naïve she can be. What will happen if she says something and provokes them?"

Neville squeezed her hand reassuringly and tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace. He reached over and grabbed one of the chocolate frogs that Seamus brought him earlier and gave her one.

"Don't you worry about Luna, she is smart enough to not provoke them."

Ginny didn't know what to think. She knew Luna pretty well and knew that she was capable of going through difficult and demanding situations, such as being attacked by death eaters, but still she was naïve and used to speak her mind openly without minding what others thought of her.

"You shouldn't be worried, we'll make it through, I promise!"

Neville squeezed her hand again and this time his smile grew wider. Ginny smiled back, knowing that he was right, no matter how much things have changed, she still had Luna and Neville, she wasn't alone.

"Now I think that you should go back to your room, I don't want Seamus misunderstanding anything."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I should go back to my room, thanks Neville"

"You're welcome. Goodnight"

"Goodnight"

….

Luna Lovegood was sleeping at her bedroom at Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardy but if you could read her mind you would see that she pictured herself sleeping at her house. Luna was one of those special people that imagined things that didn't exist or things that seemed quite unusual to others. She believed in Narges and in Blibbering Humdingers and each and every night she pictured herself sleeping at her own bed instead of the one she was currently sleeping in. People would say that she lived in her own mind and world but she didn't care, she liked it that way.

Using her mind she transformed the blue and bronze colors of her dormitory into her blue and beige ones. Her bedroom was at the second floor of her house and you could access it by the living room if you walked up the small staircase that leaded to the second floor. It was a small but comfortable room, the walls were beige and were decorated with several paintings of animals and plants and a large bookcase could be found next to an aquarium full of little colorful fishes. The bed cover was light blue with dainty beige flowers and a small wooden nightstand was next to it, it had a picture of Luna and her mom and several blue and beige candles. An old chandelier was hanging from the beige ceiling but Luna took it off at her fourth year. It was the year she painted Neville, Ginny, Harry, Hermione and Ron's faces on the ceiling and she wanted to be able to see them all the time. Their faces were beautifully painted and they almost looked real, you had the impression that they were breathing, Luna finished off her work by adding the word 'friends' between the faces of her friends. The letters looked like gold chains connecting the pictures together and made the painting even more beautiful.

Thinking of her home and imagining that she was still there, made Luna relax and sleep peacefully, it gave her a sense of normality and tranquility, things that she needed in her life now more than ever. Her home and father were part of what made Luna who she was but the moment that changed her forever was the moment she made friends. Thinking of her friends made Luna smile, it filled her soul with joy and contentment, it made her eyes shine. Having friends changed Luna's life, not because she fought against death eaters, which she might not have done if not for her friendship with Harry, but because it gave real purpose to her life, it was like a ray of light shining through the darkness.

…

Seamus opened the door of his dormitory and entered, the room was dark and quiet, Neville was sleeping at his bed but the other three beds were empty. The quietness and the emptiness of the room struck Seamus the first day at school but day after day he realized more and more how lonely he felt. His friends weren't there and he missed them all but most of all he missed Dean. He was the only one that could understand him and they always liked the same things. Seamus liked Neville,Harry and Ron but didn't have the same kind of connection with any of them. Harry and Ron were always too centered in their own adventures and Neville was too shy, but Dean was cheery and outgoing and he enjoyed a good joke. Dean was always there for Seamus and they never fought. Even when Seamus went against Harry, Dean didn't do anything to support Potter to not go against his best friend.

Now Dean was hiding away, trying to save his own life, he couldn't return to Hogwarts and Seamus had no idea where he was and what he was doing. Seamus remembered the day of Dumbledore's funeral and his conversation with Dean. They talked about Dumbledore's death and how it would affect their lives and Dean thought that it would affect them more than they thought. And he was right, after a few weeks things had changed, Snape was the new headmaster, death eaters were teaching and muggle borns were forced to hide. The whole world had changed dramatically and nothing stayed the same anymore.

**-Demelza Robins- Jimmy Peakes were members of Gryffindor's Quidditch team during Harry's leadership.**

**-I am so happy to introduce Luna to my story as part of the different point of views.**

**- I don't know why I keep writing about Seamus and not any other characters, he just seems more connected to the course of the events.**


	7. Dementors

¨Draco are you listening to me? Draco…"

Draco flicked his eyelashes in a desperate attempt to not fall asleep. It was 6am and Pansy wouldn't stop talking about the new stuff her mom send her or gossiping about slytherin's new couples. Deep down he knew that he didn't care for any of these stuff, but he couldn't sleep and didn't want to spend the morning staring at the ceiling of his dorm. So he stayed there, curled up in a ball, listening to Pansy's unstoppable rambling.

"I am listening, you were telling me about your new pet."

"I hate it, mom thinks that it's cute, but I hate it. It's always curled up behind my knees and wants me to feed it…."

"Aha…"

Draco wasn't listening anymore and he didn´t make an effort to listen either. His eyes were darting back and forth across the room in search of a way out. Over the last days he discovered that it was really hard to find some solace at the castle, Pansy followed him everywhere, always talking about things he didn't care about, trying to get him be interested in her. And even when she wasn't around, Draco was never alone; there were always students around him.

"And she wouldn't listen, it's so irritating…"

"Yes, irritating. I am hungry; I'll go eat something…"

"I'll come with you"

"No, it's ok."

Pansy started complaining about staying behind, but he didn't care, he went straight out of the door without looking at her. He wasn't really hungry; he just needed an excuse to leave. He knew that he shouldn't be wondering around the castle that early, he had to think of a remote place, where no one could find him. The only place he could think of was the lake outside the castle.

Draco cautiously walked down the corridors, trying to not get caught by Filch, he wasn't in the mood of explaining why he was awake. Fortunately the corridors were empty and he didn't have to hurry up, he could walk slowly, enjoying the cold air hitting his face. He noticed that the air was colder than it should be, it was almost chilling, and thought of going back to his dormitory and getting a coat, but didn't want to see Pansy so he kept walking.

It was extremely cold for a September day which made Draco suspicious, normally it had to be a bit windy and cold but pleasant to walk around. The sun was hiding behind thick, dark grey clouds, clouds that were covering the sky and making everything look dull. He looked around and saw the source of the cold unpleasant weather; _Dementors_ _were_ _positioned_ _all_ _around_ _the_ _castle_!

…..

"Dementors? Are you sure?"

"Yes, they are all over the place."

"But why would they place dementors here? Neville what do you think?"

Neville who was heading towards the greenhouse stopped on his tracks and looked back. Hannah Abbott was looking at him, clearly expecting an answer but Neville was so taken aback from her question that he stood there speechless. Hannah never talked to him, except the time they were both part of the D.A so he found it weird that she actually talked to him.

"_They are trying to take over our school, that's what I think!"_

Ernie looked surprised by Neville's honest answer, he 'examined' Neville and after a few seconds of silence he nodded.

"Maybe you are right! He already prohibited Quidditch and visiting Hogsmeade."

"Shouldn't we do something about it?"

"Do what?"

"I don't know…"

Hannah looked at Neville again, expecting him to say something. He didn't understand why she was suddenly so interested in what he thought, it seemed strange. He didn't know how to answer either, he couldn't think of a way to send the dementors away.

"I'll go inside, it's freezing cold over here"

"I'll come with you, maybe we could work together"

"Yeah, Ernie could work with us too"

"Ernie? Yeah, I guess he could."

Hannah put her gloves on and shyly smiled at Neville, making his heart skip a beat and butterflies flying inside his stomach.

Professor Sprout told them to start cleaning up their plants and Neville started cleaning up his, after showing to Hannah and Ernie how to do it. They all worked together and they were the first ones to finish their assignment. Hannah smiled again and thanked Neville for helping her out, making his heart skip a beat again.

After the class, Neville waved goodbye to the two Hufflepuffs and headed to the castle. The weather was unnaturally cold and windy and Neville shivered, he had to bring his coat with him but didn't think of it, he never imagined that dementors would be hovering above the castle. _Neville_ _saw_ _two of_ _them_ _hovering_ _above_ _the lake, which was partly frozen,_ _the_ _air_ _around_ _them_ _seemed to_ still _and the sky looked_ _darker_ _than_ _ever_. He had encountered dementors in his third year but they were protected, Dumbledore made sure that the students wouldn't be affected by them. Things were way different this time, Neville could feel a slight hint of depression and despair surrounding him and making him incapable of a single cheerful thought. He looked around and saw several 11 year old students looking around, wondering what was happening, of course they didn't know what kind of a creature a dementor was and what it was capable of. They didn't know how to fight it either, he wondered if he could create a patronus and send them away, but his patronus wasn't powerful enough to do that and it seemed like there was _some_ kind of protection, they weren't fully affecting their victims.

Averting his eyes to the ground, he felt a pang of hopelessness. He wished Harry was there, he would form a plan, would do something. Harry had already taught them how to defend themselves by casting the patronus charm back at his fifth year, at the D.A classes. Neville remembered how much he struggled to create a corporeal Patronus but Harry seemed to cast his patronus so effortlessly and it seemed _so_ powerful, so bright and _warm. _Neville always looked up to Harry, he inspired him as he inspired many others. He wished that Harry would come back and form a resistance against the Carrows and Snape. Someone had to give hope to the students, tell them that everything was fine and they would go through this, unharmed.

Still thinking of the dementors he entered the Great Hall and headed towards the Gryffindor table not noticing Luna and Ginny standing next to a large window, staring outside. Fortunately the girls saw him and called his name, he went closer to them and stared outside the window.

"Can you believe it? Dementors, outside Hogwarts, like we are some kind of prison filled with criminals."

"I saw two of them hovering above the lake, this morning."

Luna titled her head curiously as she studied the park, Ginny on the other hand shrugged and frowned slightly.

"I wonder what's his next move, death eaters guarding the students?"

Neville frowned himself and looked at the teacher's table with obvious distain.

"They are already teaching us, so why not? But I don't think that this is the right place to speak about things like that."

"Yes, we should go to the library."

They all went to the library and sat at the end of a long, deserted corridor, filled with old books that smelled weirdly. Luna took her seat next to Neville and titled her head again, curiously eyeing her friend.

"Do you think that it's safe for us to sit here and talk?"

"I don't know, it seems safer than any other place."

"I am not quite sure about that, there are _other_ places, safer for us to talk."

"What other places?"

"Places not many of us know about, _secret_ ones"

Neville shot her an uneasy look, unsettled by her piercing gaze, his eyes dropped to the floor again.

"I don't know what you are talking about Luna."

"Of course you do, we need a secret place to meet, we can't keep planning things like that in the library."

"Planning things like what?"

"Things like _rebelling_ against _them_."

Luna talked slowly and deliberately, punctuating every word so that they understood what she was talking about. She caught Neville by surprise, he never imagined her saying something like that. Of course he couldn't lie to himself, he already thought of rebelling but every time he thought of it, he pictured Harry, Hermione and Ron leading the resistance, with the trio now gone, who would lead it?

Neville briefly glanced at Ginny, she looked perplexed, Luna on the other hand was beaming.

"Come on, I know you thought about it too. Someone has to do it."

Neville shifted on his seat, feeling uncomfortable under her gaze, he thought of something to say, desperately trying to ease the tension that had escalated but he came up with nothing. Ginny's lips were pursed together, she looked equally uncomfortable. He looked at her eyes, trying to understand what she was thinking, but they were hard to read, almost impossible. After a few minutes of complete silence, Ginny stood off her seat and gestured to follow her. She left the library and kept walking and walking, he didn't have to ask where they were heading, he already knew. The three of them headed towards the seventh floor and the tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach the trolls ballet. They casually stopped at the opposite side of the tapestry and eyed the invisible door that lead inside the Room of Requirement. He waited for Ginny to start pacing past it three times, thinking about what they needed, but Ginny didn't move, she was looking at him, waiting for him to start walking past the door. Luna offered him a small smile, her eyes were sparkling with happiness and anticipation.

He looked reluctantly at the door, almost fearing to open it up, he waited for several moments, hesitating to move until he saw Ginny rolling her eyes and decided to act. He walked past the invisible door, wishing for a place that no one could find, a place protected by the Carrows, Snape and their supporters, he concentrated, trying to close all the loopholes, eventually the door appeared and Ginny opened it.

It was a relatively large room but it was quite empty, two comfortable couches and a large wooden table were placed at the centre of it next to a fireplace and a bookshelf filled with books and other items.

"It looks different"

"Yeah I know, I didn't know what exactly we were supposed to do here so I thought of a comfortable and quiet place for us to meet and talk."

Luna smiled brightly again and her voice became dreamy and serene.

"What are we supposed to do? _Start_ _the_ D.A _of_ _course_!"

_**Guys thanks so much for reviewing, I took into consideration your comments and here it goes:  
>Malfoy is back, there is action in this chapter, Ginny and Luna look ahead and show their smart and strong personalities respectively and I think that you can already see that they are considering Neville as the leader.<strong>_

_**Hope you like it,**_

_**Any comment is welcomed!**_

_**xoxo**_


	8. Starting the resistance

_**Ok, to start with I want to thank my beta reader Artyfan for helping me out, not only by correcting my grammar mistakes but also by providing some great ideas. **_

_**The D.A members may seem few, but if you read the chapter in the deathly hallows that focuses on the scene inside the Room of Requirement you'll see that there were just a few members inside the room. I didn't include first year students because I think that they are too young to participate and that they would want to keep the group as secret as possible, by letting only former members to join. This may change on the next chapters, so stay tuned!**_

_**(Last but not least this chapter is written by Luna's, Terry Boot's (hey you wanted Ravenclaws, I gave them to you!) and Seamus point of view)**_

**ENJOY AND REVIEW!**

Luna placed her hand inside Neville's and squeezed it with all the strength she had. He was lying on the couch in the Room of Requirement, eyes closed, and breathing even. She smiled and laced their fingers together, the contrast between her cold skin and his warm one making her shiver for the briefest moment.

She didn't know why, but she had the need to be close to him, make him understand that no matter what happened she was there for him. It was an important day for him; they had called for a D.A meeting, the first in years and none of them knew if anyone would want to be there. She knew that Neville needed her, Ginny was strong and fiercely independent, but Neville needed someone to be there for him, to support him when he felt lost, confused and alone. So she stayed there for him, holding his hand, never leaving her place next to him.

Still holding his hand, she closed her own eyes, she had nearly drifted to sleep herself when the door of the Room of Requirement opened and Seamus Finnegan, Parvati and Padma Patil and Lavender Brown entered. Luna squeezed Neville's hand gently trying to rouse him from his sleep but he didn´t stir. Not being able to wake him up, she pushed him lightly, leaning closer to whisper:

"Neville please wake up, they are here!"

Neville opened his eyes, glancing around quickly before standing. Ginny was already standing in front of a number of chairs arranged for the students to sit. Ginny greeted her friends who took their seats and waited for the other ones to arrive. Soon enough, Hannah Abbott and Ernie Macmillan entered together. After several minutes Michael Corner, Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein joined their classmates, waiting for Neville, Ginny, or Luna to address the assembled crowd.

Terry Boot sat in a corner of the Room of Requirement and watched the two Gryffindors and Ravenclaw talking in quiet whispers. He wondered when they came up with the idea of restarting the D.A, he didn't wonder _why _they wanted to restart it, he _knew_ full well- it was the same reason that had persuaded him to come.

_Hogwarts was being run by Death Eaters._

If he were honest with himself, he would admit that he hadn't thought of rebelling or acting against his professors. _Not_ _before_ _the_ _Muggle_ _studies_ _class_.

At first he had casually opened his book and started reading but after the first page, he had started wondering how any of the things that the book said could be true. It clearly twisted history, twisting the events of the muggles against wizards war. It portrayed muggles as _incapable_ _of_ _thinking_, _uncivilized,_ and _cruel_ beings that forced the wizards to go into hiding. He didn't know much about muggles but he knew that they weren't uncivilized; he also knew that there was no scientific fact proving that wizards were superior to Muggles in any way. Terry quietly listened to everything the professor had to say but he found himself struggling with the idea of standing idly and letting the woman force her twisted ideas upon them.

Upon several agonizing minutes of inner battle, he decided to raise his hand and ask the question that was burning inside his mind.

"Professor what makes us superior to muggles? There's no scientific fact that proves that we are superior to them, genetically or mentally."

He waited for Alecto to notice his hand and justify her opinion, since she seemed to fanatically believe in the book's theory, but all he got was an amused laughter.

"Are you an expert, Mr. Boot?" Alecto waited for a second, wanting to see if Terry would react somehow, but he didn't answer, smiling to herself, she continued. "I thought not. It's not your job to question the book, read it and acknowledge the truth"

"But I don't understand professor, how are we any superior-?"

He didn't get to finish his question, Alecto laughed again amused by his comments, her laughter seemed forced and fake and resembled Umbridge.

"Who are _you_ to question the _ministry_? The ministry has approved the books, so read and stop asking questions."

Terry slumped down at a loss for words, he tried to avert his eyes of the professor but he couldn't. That was the moment he realized that it wouldn't be another one of those calm and boring years at Hogwarts, Alecto Carrow was worse than Umbridge or any other professor. They wouldn't learn anything; she would just force her twisted ideas upon them, refusing to allow them to cultivate individual thought.

They had to do something, anything - and what better way to resist than Dumbledore's Army?

Seamus was patiently waiting for the trio to start talking, he felt his stomach clench and his throat was dry, it was a very important day, this was _their_ chance to _defend_ themselves and their school. More than that…it was his _only_ chance to take his mind of Dean. Dean was a constant worry, one that wouldn't leave him even when he was sleeping at night. A piece of his mind was always attached on the memories of him and his best friend during their school years, he could be studying or playing chess but his mind replayed those memories again and again, bringing him only distress and pain.

He glanced over at Ginny and wondered how she was copying with not being able to see _both_ her brother _and_ her boyfriend. What made her find the strength and courage to rebel when she must felt that _lonely_? Ginny was the first one to direct the crowd and he focused entirely on her speech.

"Welcome, and thank you for coming" Ginny paused for the briefest moment. "I just want to tell you that..._this_ isn't Hogwarts. _This_ isn't the place I was so desperate to come to before I was eleven."

Seamus saw Luna smiling at her friend, trying to encourage her and many others mimicked her, smiling broadly or cheering. Neville tried to mimic her too, but his attempt at a smile looked more like a grimace. He managed to gain control of himself and speak.

"The Carrows are worse than Umbridge, worse than any other professor! These are death eaters who _torture_ and _kill_, and hunt down muggleborns like _Hermione_ and _Dean_."

Seamus flinched at the mention of his best friend, but he didn't let himself start worrying again, he smiled at Neville encouraging him to go on.

"If you agree to be part of this group you _need_ to know that there's a chance that you will get _punished._ We are not going to write down our names - we _know_ how that turned out. If you agree to this, nod your head."

Seamus saw his classmates looking at each other questioningly out of the corner of his eye. He didn't wait for anyone to stand up and nod their agreement. He got to his feet.

"_I am fighting_. For _Dean_!"

He sat down again and shook his head, he didn't know how to express his need to rebel, his words seemed shallow to his own ears. It was his only way to show the world he wasn't going to stand for Death Eaters teaching him, for Muggleborns hiding to save themselves.

Parvati who was sitting next to Seamus was the next one to stand up.

"I am fighting too. For our school!"

Parvati smiled proud of herself and sat at her chair. One by one, the other students in the room nodded their agreement, Neville glanced around and nodded. His face lighted up and he smiled a natural, bright smile that graced his features.

"So we are _all_ in this!"

"Shouldn't we choose a leader?" Parvati asked and looked around "I mean someone should lead the D.A now that Harry isn't here, don't you think?"

"Where's Potter anyways?" The question everyone seemed to want to ask was finally asked by Antony Goldstein, Seamus saw Ginny flinching at the mention of her boyfriend's name and her face lost its color, acknowledging how terrible she must felt he decided to interfere before the red head replied.

"I am sure he is out there, trying to find a way to defeat you-know-who but we better focus on choosing a leader. I think that Ernie could lead, he is smart, he knows tons of spells, and he can throw a speech."

Ernie stood up and thanked him for suggesting him. "Thank you, thank you! I am glad you consider me as one of the smartest students but I am afraid that I don't have the experience, I have never fought against any death eater."

"So it's between you three, guys." Seamus pointed towards Luna, Neville and Ginny."No offence, Luna, but I am not sure you can lead."

"I don't claim to be able to lead, I _don't_ _want_ to lead. _Our leader was Harry and always will be Harry. _None of us has his experience and none of us knows the spells Hermione knows. I don't think that we should replace them as they were the ones that started the D.A"

Seamus saw everyone nodding but a question much more important had to be answered. None of them knew the spells Hermione knew so how would they be able to communicate with each other without being able to cast the protean charm?

"Guys, Luna is right, none of us knows the spells Hermione knows, so how will we be able to communicate with each other? I mean I don't know how to cast the protean charm on our coins."

"You don't need to," Luna told him. "That just allows all the coins to mimic one. As for how to change the date..."

"Here," Terry offered. "Give me your coin."

Seamus dug it out of his pocket, tossing it lightly at Terry, who caught it, pulling his wand from his sleeve. Moments later, he looked up, satisfied. "There we go. When do you want the next meeting, Neville?"

Terry demonstrated how to change the dates on the coins, saying that it would be best if Neville, Ginny, and Luna decided on the dates.

They kept the meeting short, and as Seamus left, he felt warmth rising within him. He had been there. They had accomplished something.


	9. Defense against Dark Arts

**These must be my favorite chapter so far, hope you enjoy it as much as I did!**

Neville opened the red velvet curtains of his dormitory and let the first light of the day enter; a soft light illuminated the walls of the room and spread across his face. He didn't feel like moving so he snuggled contently down into the mattress and took a deep breath. There were no words to describe the feeling of _serenity_ and _peace_ that overtook him; the contentment stole over him in waves making him smile broadly.

It had been months that he felt _that_ _happy, _so he let the feeling rise within his soul, in fear that he wouldn't feel that way again.

The reason of his happiness was quite simple, he had achieved something, he had arranged a D.A meeting, and despite his fears of no one showing up, people not only showed up but _joined_ the organization. He wasn't standing idly, he was _fighting_, he was resisting. If only his mom could see him this way, fighting against the dark forces exactly like _she_ did…

Neville sighed heavily and shoved the thoughts deep inside his head, not wanting to ruin a perfect day.

He flipped his legs over the edge of the bed and quickly stood up, he glanced around in search of Seamus, but the room was empty. Neville quickly took a shower and brushed his teeth, put his clothes on and brushed his hair. After he finished getting ready he left the dormitory and made his way towards the first class of the day, _Defense_ _against_ _Dark_ _Arts_.

Seamus was already sitting in his seat, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil sitting in front of him, quietly whispering things to each other. They seemed engaged to their conversation and didn't see him entering the class and sitting next to Seamus.

Carrow soon entered the classroom and headed towards his seat, Neville saw him holding something inside his hands but he couldn't make out what. After several minutes of complete silence Amycus slowly opened his hand and Neville saw a small _spider_ crawling inside his palm. He heard Lavender gasping loudly understanding what was about to happen in front of their eyes; Amycus would _torture_ the poor creature, forcing everyone to witness the pain that he _willingly_ caused.

Neville pushed his head inside his hands, not wanting to see what was about to happen, he wanted to go back to his room and snuggle down into the warm and comforting mattress. He saw Crabbe and Goyle out of his corner eye, the two boys were eager to cast the curse but Carrow seemed to have a different plan this time.

"Not this time Goyle! _This_ _time_ _we're having_ _a Gryffindor casting_ _the_ _curse_, I think that they should experience the pleasure of torturing, don't you think so?" Carrow looked around the classroom and cruelly smiled at the shocked expressions written on the students faces.

"Who should I choose? Who should I choose?" Amycus titled his head towards various directions, pretending to be thinking but the smile that graced his features revealed that he already had chosen "hmm Longbottom how about you?"

Neville looked up hypnotized, he knew this would happen but when it _actually_ happened he was thrown for a moment, he opened his mouth and closed it, _struggling_ to find the right words, his mouth felt dry and sticky and his body went numb, he wanted to say something, to react somehow but he couldn't. He was paralyzed.

He saw Lavender gasping again, her mouth was wide open and her eyes reflected her inner feelings, surprise, shock, sadness, and something else that he couldn't quite understand.

"Sir why don't you let Crabbe?" Neville looked at Lavender as if not acknowledging the words coming out of her mouth, her eyes found his for a second and he saw pain shine inside them. Lavender's eyes switched back to Crabbe who was looking more eager than ever. "Sir, if he is willing to…!" Her words were silenced by Amycu's laughter that filled the classroom.

"You want me to have Crabbe torture the spider Mrs. Brown? I thought you didn't want anyone to torture the _poor_, _poor_ creature" Amycu's face didn't show up any sadness or remorse only pure amusement "Did you hear that Crabbe, Mrs. Brown here wants _you_ to _torture_ the spider"

Neville studied Lavender's eyes again, he could see an inner battle taking place in their depths. Lavender was struggling with herself, she didn't want the spider to be tortured, but most of all she didn't want _Neville_ to do it.

His thoughts started spiraling out of control and the room soon spiraled too, he felt dizziness and sickness wash upon him. Neville tried to open his mouth again but his lips seemed glued together. Deep inside his head, he heard a _voice_, it was a whisper but it grew louder and louder. It was his grandma's voice; he would recognize it any day.

"Your parents would be disappointed, young boy"

The phrase kept playing inside his head, again and again, he shook his head trying to clear his mind, what was he doing?

He looked around again, he wasn't sitting on his seat anymore, he was standing in front of a desk with the spider placed on it. He didn't recall himself standing up, he had no idea how he ended up there. He shook his head again, desperately trying to clear his mind.

Suddenly the realization hit him, Seamus had interfered, he had told Carrow that he would do it instead of Neville but he didn't want Seamus to do such a thing.

And there he was standing in front of the little spider, holding his wand, his hand shaking and his mind screaming not to do it. He opened his lips; his voice was hoarse and strangled as he forced the singular word come out: "_Crucio_"

The creature's body started shaking and moving from one side to another, Neville looked mesmerized at the image that his eyes were sending to his brain, wishing that it wasn't true, wishing that he didn't cast the _same_ spell that drove his parents into insanity.

He took a sharp breath and went back to his seat, he heard Lavender sobbing and her eyes bore into his soul, forcing him to shake uncontrollably.

The class ended soon and he dashed towards his Transfiguration class, avoiding the piercing stares of his classmates, he must have walked slower than he thought because when he entered the classroom the class had already started. McGonagall glanced at him and approached him.

"Longbottom you are late, take this" McGonagall extended her hand and gave him a long piece of parchment; he took it and thanked her. "You are dismissed; go back to your dormitory." Her tone of voice wasn´t brisk, crisp or stern; it was low and anxious; her eyes pleaded him to follow her advice. He didn't need to be told twice; he left the classroom and headed towards his bedroom.

His legs seemed to carry him without any instruction from his brain, which had gone completely blank. He lay upon the soft bed of his dormitory, where he longed to be during the class, but the softness and warmness of the bed didn't calm his soul. Neville yawned and stretched, he tried closing his eyes, desperately wanting to sleep, to rest. The moment his eyes closed, sleep took over him and his tensed muscles relaxed.

_He was inside the classroom again, Seamus was standing next to him looking at something, he followed his gaze and his eyes laid on a desk, the spider wasn't there anymore, it was replaced with a man and a woman, their eyes were pleading him not to do it, but Neville raised his hand and cursed them. Their bodies started shaking and he heard his mother screaming, he was torturing his mom and dad._

Neville's eyes shot open, the scream wasn't his mother's, it was his, he had a **nightmare** **again**!

_**Draco quickly**_ _**stood**_ _**up**_ and put his school robes on, he glanced at the watch and realized that he had not slept nearly as long as he hoped, he went to the shower and showered, letting the warm water relax his body. Draco put his robes back on and made his way towards the dormitory, it was empty as everyone was having lunch at the Great Hall. He started walking, his footsteps echoing in the empty corridors, pacing outside the castle had became a habit for him over the last month, a habit he enjoyed.

He stood out on the grounds, relieved to be away of the people that were constantly staring at him. Draco never received so much attention, suddenly the whole school seemed to be interested in his whereabouts, students would stare at him and start whispering to each other, some of them didn't even make the effort to whisper, they loudly talked about his family and him. Most of them were either Gryffindors or Slytherins. He expected the hatred of the Gryffindors but he never expected his housemates to gossip about him. Most of them had parents inside the Deatheater circles and knew all about his family they knew that the Dark Lord was disappointed by his failure and they were mocking him about it. He wasn't inspiring fear inside their souls anymore and no one wanted to hear about his adventures, not that he had any to tell. He felt like a social outcast, and he wasn't _one_ to feel that way. He was _Draco_ _Malfoy_, heir of the Malfoy house, he didn't like being out casted or gossiped, he didn't like yearning for their approval.

He thought of his past and the actions of his family, what made them loose their social status? Was it his father's failure in his second year? Was it his failure the year before? How did things change that much?

He glanced at the lake and stopped the process of his unpleasant thoughts, not wanting to think more about it, he was Draco Malfoy and things would look up for him…

Draco heard people approaching and quickly cast a disillusionment charm on him, camouflaging himself for privacy and left the place he was standing at. He entered the castle again and headed undisturbed towards the steps, he walked and walked not really caring for his sore feet. A familiar scenery appeared in front of his eyes and Draco stopped for a second, glancing at the view that the tower provided. He was at the _astronomy_ _tower_, he didn't know when he ended up walking towards that place, or why he went there. An uneasy feeling rose inside his stomach.

Draco averted his gaze from the beautiful scenery and thought of the year before and the events that changed his life forever. The closet and his desperate need to fix it, his father's letters pressing him to take care of the problem, his mother's letters and her constant worry of his health, the tears inside Myrtle's bathroom, tears he was ashamed of, Dumbledore falling from the Astronomy Tower like a puppet doll.

_Dumbledore_ _falling_ _from the Astronomy Tower like a puppet doll_, dead but not by his hand, dead by Snape's hand, that was the event that changed his life forever. He _cursed_ himself and his inability to perform the curse, _it was all he had to do,_ kill the headmaster and gain the Dark Lord's appreciation again, for him, for his family.

His mind drifted back to the events that took place earlier, Carrow wanted them to practice the cruciatus curse again and for a moment Draco thought that he would be called. Fortunately he wasn't called, because if he did, he wasn't sure that he could pull it off, the spider didn't harm him in any way, and he never used the curse before. Would he be able to use it? He was unable to use the killing curse, would he curse the spider? Longbottom did, Draco thought, Neville Longbottom the stupid, incapable Gryffindor…

He was Draco Malfoy of course he would pull it off; **it** **would** **be** **easy** **for** **him**.

**Lavender sat down and closed her eyes**, she was alone at her dormitory but she didn't mind, she wanted to spend some minutes of her own.

She felt a weight pressing on her stomach, making her feel uncomfortable, she knew that it wasn't due to the lack of food; she had a proper meal during lunch time. She thought of the events that took place inside the Defense against Dark Arts classroom and felt the weight grow, not only she had allowed a poor defenseless creature to be tortured _but_ she had also _suggested_ the _person_ to torture it. How could she be that cruel?

It wasn't the first time she saw a creature being tortured in front of her own eyes, it had happened back at her forth year when Professor Moody was their teacher, but he was only _demonstrating_ the curse, he wasn't asking them to _use_ it, she hated the idea back then, she had sobbed quietly and wished that it ended. What changed this time, why was she so cruel, so apathetic?

What was the motivation behind her action? She couldn't lie to herself; she knew full well why she suggested it. Carrow wanted Neville to use the curse, Neville the quite, shy guy she knew for so many years, Neville who had gone to the ministry with Ron and Harry. She knew that it was intended, that Carrow choose Neville for a reason and she couldn't stand it.

Lavender knew that if she had the choice she would have done the same thing again, for anyone, not only Neville, for Parvati, for Seamus, for anyone…

She knew that it was her only choice, to beg for Neville to be _spared_, she hated the idea of suggesting such a horrible thing but it was the only way out. If Crabbe cursed the spider, Neville wouldn't have to do it. _No one had to be forced to do such a cruel thing._

She brought her legs closer to her upper body and hugged them, sobbing quietly, not feeling ashamed for the tears that were running down her face, soaking her blonde hair. She had a good reason to cry about, she had done something she never thought herself capable of.

_**After searching the web for hours, I found out that Colin Creevey and his brother didn't actually go to school during the death eaters regime, Colin sneaked back at school after being called by Neville's D.A coins. So there's not going to be any Colin scenes, except if you want me to write by his point of view.**_

_**I know that you'll wonder, why did Neville torture the spider and didn't rebel against it? The answer is quite simple, one day he had to torture and that day was this one, and if you closely read the chapter you'll see that he felt lost, paralyzed. Let's not forget that he is still a teenager…**_

_**There's a bit of Lavender in this chapter, hope you like it!**_

_**Review and tell me what you think!**_

_**P.S Sprinter1988, asked me how much darkness while I allow into this, It's going to be much darker than the first chapters, and yes I will write about Luna being kidnapped at the train and Ginny having to stay at home after the Easter Holidays. **_


	10. Struggling with yourself

_**This chapter is a no-action chapter, meaning not much is happening but I thought that I needed to write a chapter centered on the character's development, let them confront their deepest fears to come out stronger than ever. It wouldn't seem natural if they never broke down with all the things that are happening, right?**_

_**The chapter switches from Neville's to Ginny's POV several times, hope that it won't be confusing for you to read…**_

_**Review and tell me what you think! I love reviews!**_

Neville's eyes squint shut trying to ward off the sunlight drifting from his window, he had just woken up shivering and clutching his blankets, sweat beads running down his face and body. He shrugged and stood up, he felt his muscles protesting but he didn't mind, the need to _run_ _away_ of his nightmares seemed more important than his need to rest. The nightmare remained _clear_ and _vivid_ in his mind, the screams of his _mother_ still echoing through his ears. Despite having nightmares all his life, he never woke up so scared and disheveled again, his nightmares usually had to do with his fear of disappointing his grandmother but lately they had changed, they were darker, scarier.

Neville looked around searching for Seamus but the dormitory was empty save from a box of chocolate frogs, courtesy of Seamus. He glanced at the beaming sun outside his window and decided to take a walk outside the castle, not wanting to see anyone and fall prey of their questions, questions he couldn't answer properly.

He opened the door of his dormitory and eyed carefully the common room, making sure none of his housemates were inside, when he made sure that no one was there; he stepped outside and closed the door.

Neville walked outside the castle for hours but when the first raindrops started falling from the sky he rushed towards his dormitory. He saw a parchment placed next to the box of chocolate frogs, he rolled the parchment and opened it up.

"You weren't here when I came,

I'll be in the library with Luna, please come!

Ginny!"

He decided to meet them since he knew that Ginny wouldn't stop bugging him until she got her way with him. When he found Ginny, she was reading an old, dusted book and Luna was nowhere to be found, she closed the book and glared at Neville. Her intense glare and the way she pressed her lips together, making him shift, feeling uncomfortable. He was chewing the inside of his cheek convulsively not knowing what to say.

"Seamus told me that he took notes during Flitwick's class for you, and that he _hates_ you, you know that he doesn't like taking notes." Ginny tried to make fun of the situation, but Neville didn't like pretending that everything was fine; it seemed too tedious to be talking about ordinary things after what happened.

(_**Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.**_

_**Vladimir Nabokov)**_

_**Ginny**_ _**lowered**_ **her** _**gaze**_, _**examining**_ _**the**_ book she was reading. She waited for several moments for Neville to say something but he didn't answer, he kept looking at the shelves of books.

"_Can_ _you_ _at_ _least_ _act_ _like_ _you_ _care_?"

Neville looked at Ginny, as if he forgot that she was there, she sighed feeling guilty, she didn't want to sound _that_ _accusing_, she thought of apologizing to Neville, who had done nothing to provoke her but his eyes hold her still.

"_You_ were the one that drugged me here, I was perfectly fine seating inside my bedroom for the rest of the day, so _no_ Ginny I can't act like I care because frankly I _don't_."

Ginny stared at her friend, surprised by his strange behavior, she never saw Neville _that_ _angry_ before. She pressed her lips harder together, not knowing how to ask the question that was burning inside her mind, the moment she opened her lips she felt a limp inside her throat.

"Why did you do it Neville? Why did you torture the spider? I thought we were fighting, resisting. I thought _you_ were fighting."

Neville looked away, his face had gone deep red with anger or embarrassment she couldn't tell.

"Maybe I got _scared_. I am not _him_, Ginny, I am not _Harry_. I am not brave or the boy-who-lived. So stop expecting me to act like him." Neville avoided Ginny's eyes and looked at the shelves of the books again.

Ginny felt her nerves slipping out of control, she was boiling inside her all day long and Neville didn't help things by mentioning Harry's name, she started pacing back and forth, gritting her teeth together.

"Why did you start the D.A then Neville because I don't remember forcing you! Why didn't you _hide_ inside your bedroom, pretending that everything was fine?"

Ginny spitted the words out and left the library not wanting to listen to Neville's lame excuses. A part of her felt guilty of snapping that way but Neville provoked her, she was right for being angry with him, they were supposed to be fighting and he was talking about being scared.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a group of students that were running all around the corridors, playing some kind of a game, they run upon her and nearly knocked her down. She looked closely and saw that they were younger than her, probably eleven or twelve years old ones, they were pretending to be fighting each other, chasing their friends or trying to run away. The scene seemed eerie familiar to her and it provoked unpleasant thoughts to surface inside her mind and take over.

_She was dancing with Lee Jordan at the wedding reception, spinning gracefully around the dance floor when the patronus appeared sending it's light all around, a loud deep voice sounded and people started screaming, calling for their friends or disappareting. Ginny searched the room for the three people she cared the most, she saw Hermione clenching Harry's hand and shouting Ron's name, her brother soon appeared next to them and they all disappareted, before she got her chance for a proper goodbye. She knew that they would leave after the wedding, she knew it since the day she had the 'talk' with Harry at Dumbledore's funeral, but seeing them disappearing that suddenly broke her inside. Death eaters have appeared out of nowhere and she saw her parents and the members of the order shouting curses and red and green lights casted everywhere. She felt a hand clenching her arm and turned around to see Fred guiding her out of the reception and into safety. Ginny tried to shake his hand off, not wanting to leave but she couldn't do anything to stop him._

Back to the present, Ginny continued staring at the corridor that was now empty. She didn't know why the scene of people fighting triggered _that_ particular memory inside her mind and not another one, like their fight at the ministry of magic or at the astronomy tower but whatever was the reason, she didn't like it. Ginny looked around, not knowing what to do next, she felt her throat ache and her lungs clench painfully and decided to get some air.

The air outside was chilling and wet, the rain had stopped a while ago and drops of rain were scattered all around the school's grounds making the grass glister from the sun that was shining through the clouds. She kept walking not having any idea where her feet where taking her, the wind snapped at her face and the cold weather made her cheeks red, she pulled her robes closer to her body, trying to warm it up but soon warmness enveloped her, a fire was burning somewhere near her.

The fire was coming from Hagrid's house and Ginny thought of going inside, she hadn't seen Hagrid since the school year started and it was a great opportunity for her to occupy her mind with something else rather her thoughts of Harry or the fight with Neville.

She knocked on the door and heard loud barking and something breaking, Hagrid's face soon appeared and Ginny forced a fake smile. She saw Fang standing next to his owner, the dog barked and Ginny patted his head.

"Down, boy, down! Ginny, come inside, I was about to have some tea. Want some?"

"Hmm no thanks, how are you doing Hagrid? I haven't seen you around since the school year started."

Hagrid took a sip of his tea and looked at Ginny, his eyes held so much pain inside that she shrugged.

"Fine, I guess. Trying to adjust…"

Ginny never thought of it before but she was curious now, why did he stay, why didn't he leave in order to protect his life?

"It's been my home for so many years, where else could I go?"

Ginny smiled sadly and looked around the small house, Harry used to visit Hagrid when he was attending school, he always talked about Hagrid's tea and his house, but it was the first time that Ginny saw it with her own eyes. How many times had Harry been sitting on the same chair she was sitting at? How many times had he planned things with Ron and Hermione inside that little house? She had the strange feeling that the air smelled like him, that distinctive and unique smell Harry had overwhelmed her nostrils and made her heart start aching. There was no air, she was struggling to breath, and she felt the need to leave as soon as possible. She couldn't risk exposing herself into the horror of the loneliness and pain that dwelled inside her soul.

The sadness of her face wasn't missed by Hagrid who looked at her, obviously worrying for her.

"You're fine there Ginny? You miss- I know- have you had any news from?"

Hagrid didn't have to tell her _who_ he was talking about, she _already_ knew but she couldn't talk about it, even mentioning his name hurt her so she decided to change the subject.

"No! I had a fight with Neville"

"Neville? How's the little Gryff doing? Haven't seen him for a while…"

"He tortured.." Ginny thought of saying a _spider_ but decided against it, she knew how affectionate and caring Hagrid got with any kind of creatures. "Listen, Hagrid, my stomach hurts I better go now."

"Sure, sure bring Neville next time with you."

With that Ginny left Hagrid's house, desperately wanting to run away of her thoughts.

She felt her knees go weak and her body aching in places she didn't know that existed, she hadn't slept well at night, to be honest she hadn't slept at all, every time she closed her eyes they would force themselves open again. Her thoughts never let her calm down, thoughts of Harry's green eyes and her mother's sad face while she said her goodbye at the train station, of Ron's absence and of rebelling against the Carrows. She couldn't lie to herself anymore, she wasn't fine, she was exhausted both physically and emotionally, she spent her days thinking of a way to rebel or thinking of her loved ones and it was starting to get her. She was acting irrationally, she snapped at people without intending to, she even yelled at people she didn't know.

Lost inside her thoughts she didn't notice Minerva McGonagall standing in front of her, blocking her way.

"Mrs. Weasley may I talk to you, privately?"

Ginny nodded and the two of them headed towards her office, Ginny sat down and waited for the professor to start talking.

"Have a biscuit…"

"No, thanks…"

"I insist have a biscuit" Ginny took one and thanked her. "I heard the fight you had with Mr. Longbottom."

"I see the news come out quickly."

"No, you didn't understand, _I _heard the fight you had, although I have to admit that you were yelling loud enough for the entire school to listen." Ginny noted the switch from a formal and strict to a warmer and _compassionate_ tone. "I think that you should take care of each other, Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Longbottom needs you, and as much as I think that you have a strong personality, you need him too. You are dismissed."

Ginny left the professor's office feeling worse than she felt earlier, not only she had let herself succumb to her pain and misery, she had also snapped at her friend when he needed her the most.

She set off towards the Gryffindor common room, hoping to find Neville there and _**make**_ _**things**_ _**up**_ _**with**_ _**him**_.

_**Neville left the library and went to the only place **_he could think of, the _Room_ of _Requirement_, he was purposely seeking solitude, wanting to clear his mind of his jumped thoughts that spiraled out of control like bees trapped inside a box.

He stopped outside the hidden door and started pacing not realizing that there was another person standing in front of him, looking at the same hidden door he was looking at. A bright yellow color blinded his vision, he squeezed his eyes, and focused, the brightness came from a yellow jumper and a huge yellow flower necklace. His eyes traced the lines of the flower and moved towards the head of the person, he didn't need to see who the clothes belonged to; they could only belong to _one_ person, _Luna_ _Lovegood_.

Luna gave him a small reluctant smile and started pacing in front of the door, the invincible door appeared and they both entered. The room was simply decorated, with a brown couch and some wooden furniture; there was a fireplace that warmed the place and a small radio.

The room was completely empty save for Luna and him, Neville switched on the radio and music filled his ears, a slow romantic rhythm was playing on but it didn't suit his mood, he switched it off and sat down. They stood silent for several moments, moments that Neville cherished as a present, since they gave him time to clear his mind and rearrange his thoughts. Luna stood motionless next to him, acknowledging his need of privacy. She always had a way to give space to others, her presence calming them down while giving them time to think.

"Don't ask me _why_ I tortured the spider, ok?" Neville's voice sounded strangled, his lips trembled for a second and he wished he never brought up the subject.

He waited for Luna to ask him questions or to yell at him like Ginny did, but Luna just moved closer and took his hand inside her hand, squeezing it and letting it go. He silently thanked her for not pushing him and for understanding the way he felt.

"You don't have to explain yourself, you were scared, I understand."

Neville thought of Luna's words, Carrow didn't inspire fear inside his soul, only pure hatred and anger, Snape was the one that scared Neville, always had and always would. So why did he torture the spider? He searched Luna's eyes seeking for the answer but she averted the gaze.

"I can't give you answers, Neville. You'll find them in _here_." Luna placed her hand on his heart and he closed his eyes at her touch taking a deep calming breath.

Deep down Neville knew that the answer was simple: he was scared, scared to death! He was Neville Longbottom, the boy that everyone thought as a squib, the boy that Malfoy bullied, the boy that was afraid of Snape as if the headmaster was a dementor or you-know-who himself, he was scared to act, he was scared to rebel. He always stayed on the background, silent, only stepping forward when he felt the need to advice his friends, even at the ministry _Harry_ was the one to carry the immense burden, he was _just_ there to help his friend. Neville never had to face situations like that before, he never had to torture someone, he never had to _lead_ the rebellion, so far he faced the same problems the others faced but he wasn't the one to take drastic solutions. Things had changed now, he had to rebel, he had to be brave and face his problems and he had _failed_ _miserably_.

_¨Your parents would be disappointed, young boy¨_

He knew what the line meant now, he heard it inside his mind during the class, when his mind was fogged with revulsion and horror of what he was about to do. His parents fought against the dark forces to give him a chance for a better life and he was wasting it, succumbing to his weakness, the same weakness that paralyzed him all his life.

Ginny was right,_ he took the easy way out, s_cared to rebel against Carrow, to confront him and his fears, he stopped fighting. He was so scared that he would disappoint everyone, his grandmother, Ginny, Luna and the D.A members, he would let them down, because there was no way for him to be their hero. He didn't know how to rebel against the dark forces and he was tired of constantly being compared to Harry or his parents. He couldn't be like them, he was a coward!

"I am a coward" Neville didn't mean to speak his thoughts aloud, he didn't want anyone else to know it, but why keeping it secret? They already thought of him as a coward.

"You are not a coward" Luna searched his eyes and her gaze was so piercing that it made his knees go weak. "You didn't take the easy way out Neville it wasn't easy what you did." She took a deep breath and continued "You know that she wasn't angry with you, don't you? It's hard for her knowing that her family is out there facing all kind of dangers, while she is stuck in her, pretending to be studying. She never talks about it…but _I_ _know_."

Neville looked up mesmerized by her words and saw Luna's big eyes looking dreamy as always, he wondered how she always managed to stay that calm. Luna smiled at him, the different shades of grey swirling inside her eyes, he stared at the swirls, loosing himself to their depths and feeling his body relaxing automatically. He took her hand in his hand, thanked her for being there for him and returned the smile.

_**Ginny opened**_ _**the**_ _**dormitory's**_ door and stepped inside, Seamus wasn't there so they would have some privacy, the moment she entered the room she heard the door opening again and saw Neville staring at her surprised.

"I thought that we could talk here without having the entire school knowing what we are talking about."

Ginny saw Neville's eyes blink nervously, he placed his hands inside his pockets and looked at her, waiting for her to explain the _real_ reason she was there.

"I am sorry, ok?" Ginny glanced at Neville again. "I shouldn't talk to you like that, are we still friends?"

"Yes, if you want to!"

Ginny smiled for the first time that day, it was a rough start but things were good now, they argued and had emotional break-downs but they survived, they came out stronger than ever. And that was a great reason to smile about.

_***** I've read a comment that said that I never explained why Neville decided to curse the spider, I hope that this chapter allows you to understand why. We´re going to see him struggle with his insecurities and fear of standing out and rebelling a lot during the next chapters.**_

_**Next chapter will feature Dumbledore's Army and other professors too.**_


	11. We just started rebelling!

_**After 11 chapters, the resistance starts at last! I decided to use Seamus talent at pyrotechnics, since I really liked that scene at the movie with McGonagall referring to his talent, and the bridge falling down after several explosions.**_

_**Hope that you enjoy this chapter! Review!**_

The second D.A meeting took place in a cold October evening, and although it started with a huge surprise for everyone, with Demelza Robins, Coote and Peakes showing up after getting invited by Ginny it ended with the outcome everyone expected and hoped.

Neville couldn't lie to himself, he wasn't pleased with the idea of Demelza, Coote and Peakes joining Dumbledore's Army, no matter what Ginny said about needing more help to properly built the resistance, he was worried that the three Gryffindors didn't understand in what kind of danger they put themselves into by joining in. They weren't part of the original D.A and didn't know the disastrous outcome of it, with the group being torn apart at the end of the year and its members saved by a matter of minutes. Of course they wanted to resist, of course they wanted to rebel, but did they actually know what they were doing?

He didn't want to fight with Ginny, he knew how stubborn and persistent she could be, so he let the new ones to join and listened to his school mates thinking of a plan to resist. They seemed eager to proceed with the plan they came up with, but their ferventness didn't help calm down his nerves, he was on the verge of exploding into millions pieces, his mind creating numerous scenarios of them getting caught by Snape and getting punished.

Neville feared the upcoming punishment, foreseeing that it would be worse than any other one, he tried to warn his friends about it but no one wanted to listen to him, they were all so eager to act that they merely ignored him and his warnings. The fear that dwelled inside his soul didn't seem to be there for the other ones. Their faces didn't show any kind of worry or fear, only eagerness and dare to say, happiness. Not wanting to upset his friends, Neville did the only thing he could think of; he masked his real feelings with fake happiness and forced a smile when they arranged the day and hour that their plan would take place.

_**Seamus held his breath as he opened the door of the secret passage he was hiding in, eyeing the floor carefully and making sure that no one was outside.**_ The corridor of the second floor was empty and quiet, no voices or steps could be heard signaling that the students were all sleeping inside their dormitories and the corridor wasn't guarded by professors that particular moment.

He took a step forward and entered the empty floor, followed by Neville and Luna who quickly closed the door behind them. Seamus eyed the floor again, while taking three magical charges out of his pocket and placing them all around, the charges were enchanted to be able to explode when Seamus would cast the spell to fire them off. After double-checking the amount of magical charges he needed to cause various explosions without exploding the whole second floor, he placed the charges and took a step back.

Neville and Luna who were standing by his side and watched out for any possible threat approaching them, nodded and Seamus cast the spell causing a number of loud bangs. The bangs were loud enough to wake up the entire school but their job wasn't done, Luna placed her hand inside her robes and took out the Basic Blaze Box, a magical object that caused fireworks to appear and that was part of the Weasley's wild-fire whiz-bang collection. Fred and George had kindly given it to Luna when she visited their store during her summer holidays and Luna apparently found a way to snick it inside school by transfigurating it to look like a sticky, smelly cream for acne.

The moment Luna opened the box, gold and silver animal shaped fireworks appeared all around the floor, flying up the ceiling or down the corridor, illuminating the place and making everything seem shiny and bright. Seamus closed his eyes to protect them from the brightness of the fireworks and for the first time in his life, admired Luna Lovegood for being able to sneak such an object to school. Soon enough he heard members of the portraits waking up cursing for being waken up so late at night and decided that it was time for them to leave.

Seamus and Neville advised Luna to be careful and run towards their dormitories as fast as they could, fortunately the fat lady was sleeping and only cracked an eye when they said the password and entered the empty common room. They heard movement and voices coming from the girls dormitories and knew that the students were waking up due to the loud bangs that could be heard all around the castle, so they decided to go upstairs and change their robes into nightwear. Upon making sure that the common room was occupied with students they decided to go down and pretend to be surprised and annoyed as everyone else, Seamus saw the same mask of annoyance on Parvati's and Lavender's face and smiled to himself, knowing that the two girls were part of their plan.

Soon enough the room was filled with students of all ages and the door opened revealing a frustrated and tired McGonagall. The teacher eyed each and every student carefully, lingering a bit more on Ginny but eventually left the room after sending everyone to bed.

**Ginny shook her head reassuring herself that everything would be fine and headed towards the Gryffindor dining table. **The table was filled with students, eating breakfast and loudly chatting for the events of the last night and Ginny immediately joined the conversations trying to blend herself with the crowd of worried and amused students. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Snape gazing towards the Gryffindor table, his glare was focused on her for a second and she felt a strange feeling inside her mind, it seemed like he was casting a spell on her or cursing her, but several seconds passed, nothing happened and the strange feeling died inside her mind. She didn't quite understand what happened, but didn't want to draw any attention to her so she continued eating her eggs and chatting with Seamus. Seamus chatted casually and stuffed as many eggs he could inside his mouth, reminding her of Ron and the way he ate his meals. He seemed pretty content with himself and his work, as he was the one that showed them the way to explode things, he seemed to have a talent in pyrotechinics, one that they would take advantage of in the next months.

Ginny thought of their plan and how well it worked, the idea came to her when Neville mentioned her stubbornness as part of her Weasley blood that was the moment she thought of her twin brothers and their rebellion against Umbridge, it was a simple plan and one that they could easily pull off since Seamus was good at exploding things and Luna just happened to have two boxes full of fireworks. The decision was approved by the members of Dumbledore's Army and soon the students parted into two groups, with Seamus, Neville and Luna being the one and Ginny, Michael Corner and Terry Boot being the other.

Everything seemed to fall into place, Seamus was great with pyrotechnics, Terry and Ernie knew plenty of spells, Luna was great at transfigurating things, and _she_ was a Weasley, rebelling was inside her blood. She had a feeling that rebelling wouldn't be as difficult as she thought but everything could change upon hearing Snape's punishment for what happened. A punishment that never came, Snape warned them that he would find the students that pulled the prank and punish them but he didn't announce who the students were and if he was suspecting anyone.

"_Hmmm we have to wait and see then, but til then let's make his life a living hell" _Ginny thought and took a bite of her apple pie.

_**Severus Snape sat at the headmaster's seat inside his office and let his body relax.**_The Carrows had just left his office after their 10th visit that day complaining about letting the students go unpunished for their prank, forcing Snape to find various excuses to support his decision, by pointing out that they didn't know who did it and him being busy to care about school pranks. However no matter what he said, the Carrows were determinate to punish someone, _anyone_, they enjoyed punishing too much to care about details as who did it and who's innocent. He had to explain to them again and again that they shouldn't waste their time with school pranks and that the dark lord wouldn't be happy if they wasted their time in such way but at the end it all came to him pulling out his last and most powerful card. The dark lord trusted him and supported his decisions, the Carrows lacked the same level of proximity with their lord and the fear of disappointing him forced them to leave Snape in peace.

He knew that it wasn't the last time he had to save the students by getting punished and tortured by the Carrows and for the first time in his life, Severus Snape _wished_ that his students would stop stupidly risking their lives. Little did he know that across the castle a group of students were writing rebelling phrases on the walls:

"_Hogwarts belongs to its students! Dumbledore's Army still recruiting!"_


	12. The mask of Severus Snape

**We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing our own skin.**

Ginny took a step back and admired her work, the walls of the fifth floor where now covered entirely with red colored phrases, an idea that came up after Seamus mentioned a muggle movie where the resistance soldiers spray-painted the walls of their enemy's buildings. The idea was instantly approved by the members of the D.A but the execution troubled them a lot, not only they were putting their lives in danger by getting caught but they also came up to the open, they _declared_ that Dumbledore's Army still _existed_, and if _that_ couldn't put them into trouble, what else could?

Ginny knew that something wasn't going right upon hearing Snape's announcement that the trouble makers would be punished, but seeing no punishment taking place. She knew that Snape wasn't fooled, he knew exactly who the trouble makers where and he probably was waiting for them to act again, before punishing them severely. And now they were giving him the reason to punish them, but what else could they do? She couldn't stay in the background and let the dark forces rule the world she lived in, even in this small kind of way she had to rebel.

Everyone in her family participated into the resistance, her father risked his life day after day by working at the ministry and providing valuable information to the Order of Phoenix, her brother and Fleur were working at Gringotts, also providing valuable information, and Ron was on a mission so _secret_ that not even the highest members of the Order knew about it.

She couldn't act otherwise, she had to rebel, for her family, for ex-headmaster, for _Harry_. Harry Potter, her ex boyfriend who went on a mission to save the world, who had time to save _everyone_, but didn't have any time to give to _her_. He pushed her out of his life and for that she couldn't blame him, she wasn't a fool, she knew that Harry was trying to protect her, but sometimes she wished that she could go with him, the same way Hermione and Ron accompanied him to this possibly last adventure of his.

_**Meanwhile all across the castle **_Severus Snape was informed by Armando Dippet that Seamus Finnegan, Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood were causing trouble again, this time by writing rebelling phrases all over the walls of the castle. It wasn't like he didn't expect this to happen, he knew that they wouldn't stop at the fireworks-explosions prank but he didn't understand why they _rushed_ to act so soon, especially by declaring that Dumbledore's Army not only _existed_ but _recruited_ students. They were stupidly risking their lives again and this time he wasn't sure how he would save them without risking to get exposed. The fireworks prank as he called it could pass as a childish prank, one that he could pretend to ignore being busy with more demanding situations, but declaring that the D.A existed couldn't be passed as a childish prank, it was a pure act of rebellion, it was the match that started the fire, they were declaring _war_!

Severus glanced nervously at Dumbledore's portrait and silently asked for help, it was his plan after all, he was the one that forced him to kill him and take his place, he was the one that let these students get punished without leaving a way to Snape to protect them.

"Severus, Severus" The headmaster spoke "There's no way for you to protect them without getting exposed, I am sure that you are perfectly aware of it."

Snape glanced at the portrait again and shook his head. "So you'll let them get punished, tortured?"

"My dear friend, we both know that you can't stop it from happening but perhaps you can make sure that the punishment won't be as severe as it could be."

Snape looked at the floor, he knew that Dumbledore was right but he couldn't stomach It, even if he highly disliked Weasley and Longbottom, he didn't wish for them to get punished by the Carrows. Dumbledore looked at him kindly and smiled, the smile reached his eyes that were hidden behind his moon-shaped glasses.

Dumbledore suddenly closed his eyes and pretended to fall asleep, Snape knew that it was a signal, the Carrows were approaching his office, soon the door opened and Alecto and Amycus entered, their faces red with anger and their mouths curved into a devious smile.

"This time we'll punish them, right Severus? They _will_ get punished!"

Alecto's eyes widened with eagerness and her smile turned into a triumphant one. Her brother mimicked her and took his wand out of his pocket.

"We caught Lovegood and Finnegan!"

The door opened again and Crabbe, Goyle and several other Slytherins entered, they were tightly holding Seamus, Luna and much to his surprise _Ginny_ and _Neville_, who were trying to get away of the tight grip with all their power.

"Those two" Alecto said and showed Ginny and Neville. "were found at the corner of the fifth floor, they tried to stop us from torturing their friends, so we brought them too."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he looked at the four students standing in front of him and nodded.

"Do whatever you want!"

"Let's see if they'll rebel again after they get tortured for hours!" Amycus said and turned around to face Luna with his wand still inside his hand, ready to shoot curses in any minute.

Snape was about to protest when Neville kicked Goyle and sprinted forward, blocking Luna's body.

"You won't torture her, I won't let you!"

Snape looked at Dumbledore's portrait again and loosed himself into his memories, the scene happening inside his office seemed so familiar to him, it was so similar to the one that took place at the end of the fifth year with Umbridge that it brought shivers to his body. He realized that for letting his thoughts take over him, he loose seconds of the conversation that was happening inside the office and cursed himself for that.

Alecto ripped her wand out of her robes. With a smooth, quick movement Neville fell on his knees and started twitching uncontrollably. She hovered on top of him and swung her wand again, sending him into spasms of pain, a terrible, haunting scream echoed through the room. However the third time she cursed him, he seemed to take the physical punishment better, his legs bent upon his body and he began jerking violently but he didn't give Alecto the pleasure of screaming. He kept staring straight ahead, his gaze fixed into something that Snape couldn't see or understand.

"That's enough! I think that he learnt his lesson, as _they_ did!" Snape said and motioned towards Luna, Ginny and Seamus who were struggling to get away of the tight grips, Luna's face was drained of any color and her lips were trembling, Seamus looked horrified and angry but the one that got Snape's eye was Ginny whose face was red with anger, teeth clenched and eyes gazing at him with hatred.

He penetrated her mind, it was easy for him to read her thoughts since she seemed to have no clue how to protect her mind by mental attacks. Her mind was disoriented, foggy but the main thoughts were the hatred she felt and her need to keep rebelling. Afterwards he decided to read Neville's mind, reading his thoughts easier than Ginny's, his mind was set on an image of his parents twitching uncontrollably and his mother giving him empty gym wrappers, he didn't understand _how_ and _when_ he saw his parents being tortured but he didn't stay long enough inside his mind to find out.

The Carrows looked at him and argued for them to keep torturing the poor Gryffindor, but Snape wasn't going to change his mind, he send them away and ordered Ginny and Neville to stay inside his office, for him to talk to them.

"Longbottom, Weasley! Explain yourselves!"

Ginny gazed at him again, her gaze now filled with hatred more than ever. Neville on the other half was slightly shaking and upon reading his mind again, Snape knew that it wasn't due to the fact that he got tortured but due to his fear of the headmaster. The two Gryffindors didn't answer or move from the spot they were standing in, just looked at him unseeingly.

"I see that you have nothing to say. Who started the D.A?"

Neville's body shook again and his face lost its color but the boy took a step forward and faced the headmaster.

"No one started the D.A, we have no idea what you are talking about. We were just having a _walk_ and the Carrows brought us here, without any reason."

Snape smiled evilly and gazed at Longbottom, he knew that he was lying, he didn't need to read his mind, by the way he was shaking he couldn't fool anyone, but he decided to let them go after ordering them to help Filch to clean up the toilets of the entire school.

After closing the door he sat at the headmaster's seat and looked at the sleeping portrait of Dumbledore, he was working for so many years for the old man, so many years of _lies_ and _betrayal_, so many years of standing by and watching _innocent_ people getting tortured. For so many years evil and terror surrounded him that he started believing that he went _numb_, that he wasn't feeling anything anymore, no pain, no sadness, no remorse. He was like an empty shell, a soldier ordered to fight until the end….

Maybe after so many years of fighting the evil, he became evil himself, maybe he enjoyed punishing the students and ordering them to clean up toilets, _maybe_ Snape thought, in order to fight the monsters, you have to become a _monster_ yourself.


	13. Are we still fighting?

_**This chapter starts right at the end of the last chapter, so if you don't remember what happened reread it to be able to understand. It focuses on the different kind of thoughts and emotions our heroes deal with after getting caught by the Carrows. This chapter is mostly about Neville, but there's a bit of Seamus, Ginny and Snape too!**_

_**Tell me what you think!**_

Severus Snape cursed himself for momentarily losing control of his thoughts and emotions.

He put his hands over his head and vowed to never pity himself or let his emotions and thoughts take over again, he was a _soldier_ into a dangerous war and he had to act as one.

His job was to be in charge of everything, he had to deal with the actions of his students, he had to deal with Carrow's cruel behavior, and he had to do it in a way that would look both _detached_ and _involved_. Involved into everything that was happening around him and detached from the pain and intense emotions that came with his decisions. He was after all known of his cold and manipulating nature, the same nature that helped him work as a double spy without getting himself exposed.

Snape saw out of the corner of his eye Dumbledore, smiling a wide smile that didn't fit the situation and wondered what was the ex-headmaster thinking of. He didn't have to ask though:

"You are wondering why I am smiling, Severus. I am smiling because I am proud of my students. They didn't give up, they keep fighting!"

"And they were _tortured_ about it!"

"Yes, but even after getting tortured, Neville Longbottom had the _courage_ to face you. He really is son of his parents." Dumbledore said and watched as Snape's expression changed from annoyance to confusion. "His greatest fear is facing you, you do know that his boggart takes your form, don't you?"

Snape nodded, he knew that Longbottom was scared of him, he knew it since the first day he met the boy but he didn't understand what Dumbledore was talking about. How could using a childish lie, as walking around the castle and accidently coming across the rebelling phrases, could be seen as a _courageous_ act? How could it be seen as _facing_ someone you fear? After all Longbottom was shaking so much and his face was so drained of color, that it would be obvious to anyone who saw him that he was still scared of the headmaster.

Dumbledore smiled again and threw his head back. "You will understand one day, my dear Severus."

_**Ginny walked towards the common room with Seamus and Neville as her only company.**_ Neville's face the moment they left Snape's office occupying her mind! It was hard to understand what Neville was thinking of, but sure it had something to do with what happened inside the office. Ginny wished that the thoughts inside Neville's mind weren't thoughts of giving up, hoping that the fear that seemed to overwhelm her friend lately wasn't there anymore, maybe now that he faced Snape and lied to his face, Neville would be able to _trust_ himself and his abilities, and understand that he was perfectly capable of rebelling.

She wasn't fooled by the mask of happiness and determination placed upon his face, she knew that deep down Neville was afraid of getting caught and punished and that his fear stopped him of _fully_ committing himself to their goal.

Of course she understood that it wasn't easy for him to overcome his fear of Snape and rebelling but rebelling was the only path in front of them. Even after what happened inside the headmaster's office, even after watching her friend wreathing from the pain not even for a second she thought of giving up, contrary her need to keep fighting against the dark forces and their injustice and cruelty was stronger than ever.

_**Neville Longbottom opened the door of his dormitory and took a deep breath to calm down his racing heart. **_He knew that declaring that Dumbledore's Army still recruited students would put their lives into danger so being tortured by Carrow didn't surprise him, neither the pain that shot through his body, the fact that surprised him the most was that he was able to _deal_ with the pain. He didn't know how and when he found the strength not only to stop screaming his lungs out but also to _face_ his headmaster, the man he feared for so many years, and lie to his face.

Since the moment they were caught by the Carrows and dragged to Snape's office his mind was overworking, trying to find a way to get themselves out of the dangerous for their lives and activities situation. If Snape believed that they were behind the rebelling phrases that now covered the entire school, if he _even_ for a moment believed that they were the ones that restarted Dumbledore's Army their lives would be into tremendous danger and their group would be _torn_ apart. He had to find a way out of that situation; he had to improvise, possibly lie to Snape's face, ignoring his fear of the headmaster.

Ginny wasn't in the right mood to properly deal with it, being too frustrated with the headmaster to chit chat with him so that part was left for him. Someone had to get them out of that office alive and unharmed!

Not that claiming that they were casually walking around and by luck came across with the covered by the phrases walls was a great way of saving them from getting accused of rebelling. It was actually a _childish_ and _unimaginative_ excuse but it was efficient enough to get them out of Snape's office.

_**Several hours later Seamus who was peacefully sleeping on his bed, cracked open one eye and eyed the place around him, **_the dormitory was empty save from Neville who was walking between the beds. Neville seemed to have a conversation with no one but himself, whispering things and occasionally frowning. Seamus noticed that he still had his school robes on meaning that he never went to sleep.

He knew that stopping Neville's track of thoughts by talking to him wasn't the best idea, but he felt like talking to someone and Neville was the only one there.

"Hey, mate! Can't sleep?"

He tried to chat as casually as possible, not wanting to ask the question that he originally wanted in order to not upset his friend but Neville didn't answer, not hearing the question or simply ignoring it. Seamus sighed heavily and decided that he probably wasn't in mood of chit chatting so he dropped the casual tone.

"Why do you think he let us go? Do you think that he stopped suspecting us?"

Neville who was now watching the deep red color of the curtains didn't answer, but continued pacing around and gazing at different objects scattered all around the room.

"Will we keep….?" He felt his throat sore; he couldn't finish the sentence out of embarrassment of _thinking_ of giving up. The thought prominent from the moment he saw Neville being tortured by Carrow. Seamus knew that Snape and Carrow would be pleased, the punishment had the effect they wished, Seamus wasn't tortured, but by watching his friend in pain all thoughts of rebelling _vanished_. All happiness sucked out of his soul, every kind of resisting thought pushed aside. He was _scared_, scared that next time _he_ would be on the receiving end of the curse instead of Neville. He tried to hide his fear pretending that everything was fine but Neville noticed the change of his tone and understood what the question was all about.

"_Rebelling?" _Neville asked, titling his head to the side, his expression was hard to read, Seamus didn't know if he was being judged or if Neville considered the same thing he considered and wanted to talk about it.

Sure Neville would understand why he was hesitant about it, after getting tortured it seemed only natural for him to want to give up, right?

"Do _you_ want to keep rebelling? I mean _after_ what happened….?"

Neville glanced at his friend and purposely ignored the question, his gaze shifted towards the red curtains again.

"You know how scared I always was of _him_ right?" Seamus wasn't sure of whom he was talking about but he let him go on. "Tonight I lied to his face for the first time in my life. I didn't chicken out."

With that Neville headed towards his bed and tacked himself in, yawning purposely to show that the conversation was over.

"_Yes, we are still rebelling."_

"_**But are you sure Neville? " Lavender asked her friend during their fourth D.A meeting that took place the morning after he got tortured. **_"No offence, but after getting tortured I thought that you would want to…?"

"To do what, to stop rebelling?" Neville asked and watched as the members of Dumbledore's Army exchanged worried and confused glances. "I won't stop rebelling _just_ because I got tortured. I understand that you are all scared. Our organization was nearly exposed and torn apart, and we all know what the consequences would be. I understand that you are scared to keep rebelling, fearing that _you_ or _your_ friends will get punished about it, but we all agreed to be part of this, didn't we? We all knew the consequences the moment we signed."

Luna who was standing next to him, patiently listening to his speech decided to interfere knowing that what she had to say was way important to not get mentioned.

"We will understand if some of you want to leave the organization, no one will judge you about it."

Both Luna and Neville eyed the members of D.A, waiting for someone to get up and tell them that he was done fighting against the dark forces but no one moved. Even though their faces showed how worried and scared they were they all nodded and decided to keep fighting.

_**No, Dumbledore isn't alive! Snape is having a conversation with Dumbledore's portrait! **_


	14. Drabbles

_**This chapter starts immediately after the last chapter, with the D.A meeting just ending and Seamus still struggling with his fears.**_

_**It's written in drabbles, but take notice of everything that's happening inside this chapter, cause it will have to do with later chapters evolution. I put a bit of Parvati and Lavender there too, I think that they are misjudged and unnoticed by readers. People focus on the other Gryffindors and forget that Parvati and Lavender had to go through the same terrible things they did. Same goes for Seamus. So I decided to incorporate them more into my story.**_

Seamus watched as the fire slowly died at the fireplace. It was a few minutes ago the fourth D.A meeting ended and although everyone including him agreed to keep rebelling he was still scared to do so. He shouldn't lie to his friends; he should be honest with them and tell them that he was scared of the punishment that would come. He couldn't find it inside him though; he couldn't upset and disappoint his friends.

Fortunately they decided to seize rebelling for a short period of time hoping that Snape would believe that they were done with it. Of course while pretending that all actions of rebellion were stopped forever they would still recruit new members and think of ways to resist.

Seamus was pleased with the decision, maybe during that time he would find his strength and courage again. He needed a few days off, to act normal, play chess, and have fun. Maybe this sense of normality would help him deal with his fear or maybe he just wanted a way out.

Seamus heard footsteps and turned around, he thought that he was left alone with all the members of D.A already gone but he saw Luna strolling around the room. Luna approached him and stared at him questioningly. He returned the gaze wondering what she was doing there and if she ever left the room or was there the whole time. She bent down and picked up some books that were scattered all around the room, not knowing what to do he helped her pick up the books and together they returned them at their shelves.

"Are you hungry?" He heard her asking and watched as the girl pulled two apple pies out of her pocket. She took one for herself and gave him the other one; Seamus thanked her and took a bite of his pie.

Silence came between them, moments passed, with the only sound being their chewing and breathing. The moment the silence became awkward Luna stood up and announced that she had to study. She was about to leave the room when she stopped turned around and faced him.

"You're alright? You know after what happened at Snape's office?" Luna asked calmly and waited for him to answer.

Seamus shot her an uneasy look and shifted again. "They will find out…." He took a deep breath. "What we are doing here, they will find out and they will torture us, all of us; you do know that, don't you Luna?" Seamus asked and wondered if the girl knew what she put herself into.

"Yes, I know! I am not scared. Sometimes we have to ignore our fears, it's not _our_ fate we need to change but the fate of the ones we love." Luna said wisely. And with that she left the room.

Seamus thought of Luna's words. Although he always thought that Luna was weird and too lost into her own world to make any sense her words made perfect sense to him. There were people outside and inside Hogwarts he cared about, if by fighting against the dark forces a new and better future would rise for them, then the punishment he would have to endure didn't matter that much.

_**Ginny gave her potion to Slughorn after carefully sealing it and naming it. **_The professor took the potion, smelled it, and smiled with satisfaction. The class had ended minutes ago but Ginny had to stay behind after being asked to. She watched the professor placing the potion next to the ones her classmates made and waited for him to explain why she had to stay behind.

Slughorn praised her potion and started chatting about classes and his parties which he missed terribly but Ginny didn't listen. She didn't care for what the professor had to say, all she wanted to do was leave and meet Neville and Luna.

"Professor you wanted to talk to me about something." Ginny said, stopping Slughorn's rumbling about his famous former students and the parties he threw for over a decade.

"Oh yes, I did." Slughorn looked around and dropped his voice to a whisper. "I would like you to take this Mrs. Weasley."

He took a bottle of gold liquid out of his pocket and gave it to her, the liquid shining under the light of the hundreds candles that were illuminating the walls of the classroom. She had seen the potion before; a few months ago Hermione and Ron had shared it with her after Harry's suggestion. It was the _felix_ _felicis_ potion and _Slughorn_ was giving it to _her_.

"I would prefer this to be kept as a secret between you and me." Slughorn said and winked playfully. "I always believed that you were extraordinarily talented but we all need some _luck_." He beamed and glanced at the numerous portraits of famous students that were covering the left side of the potions classroom. "Maybe one day you'll be featured on one of these photos, oh I can only hope that you will remember your humble professor when that day will come"

She shrugged and hide the potion inside her pockets not knowing if she had to feel privileged or disgusted by his words she thanked him and left the classroom.

Several minutes later Neville was holding the potion under the light of a candle with Seamus and Luna standing by his side, admiring its shining gold appearance that resembled molten gold.

Ginny had informed the D.A that Slughorn had unexpectedly provided her with the rare to be found and extremely difficult to make potion. She still couldn't understand the reason behind the gesture, but she knew that he meant no harm and although she never liked him she thanked him for providing her with the help they needed to be able to proceed with their plans.

"Should we open it?" Seamus asked and gave Ginny his best puppy face, begging her to open it. Ginny rolled her eyes and declared that the potion wasn't going to be opened until they absolutely needed luck.

"_**Thinking of Weasley, Zabini?" Goyle said and laughed sarcastically. "Maybe now that Potter is gone, she's going to spare you a glance." **_

"Yucks, how can anyone like her? She is ugly!" Pansy who was massaging Malfoy's back said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Draco listened to his housemates arguing about Weasley's beauty, laughing sarcastically, and drinking bottles after bottles of fire-whiskey that they secretly sneaked inside school. The air smelled of alcohol, burnt wood, and cigarettes. For a house that claimed to be pure and to dislike anything _muggle,_ it seemed ironical that so many members of it _enjoyed_ a _muggle_ product like cigarettes.

Crabbe rolled on the floor, clenching his stomach and laughing so hard that his face had turned red. Goyle was rolling next to him, laughing and drinking, whiskey spilling out of his gaping mouth. Draco rolled his eyes and ignored his friends.

After disentangling himself from Pansy's tight embrace, which grew a bit too tight for his comfort zone, he left the common room, heading towards his dormitory. The moment he opened the door, he breathed the fresh air and searched inside his pockets for the letter of his mother. The need to know that everything was fine at home being the reason he left the party.

He reluctantly unfolded the paper, instantly being greeted by the familiar handwriting of his mother.

"My son,

I hope that everything's fine at school. I wanted to send you a letter since day one, I was so worried about you, but we weren't allowed to communicate with anyone outside the manor. I am sure you understand why my love.

Your father and I are doing fine. I hope that we will be able to see you soon.

Take care of yourself; write back as soon as you can.

With love,

Your parents"

The letter wasn't long or detailed, but it was enough for Draco to know that his parents were still alive and safe. Draco opened his trunk, carefully placed the letter inside, and took a piece of parchment.

"Mother,

Don't be worried about me, I am doing fine. Take care of yourself."

Draco folded the paper and placed it inside his pocket. He wanted to write more about his school life, to explain her that something was off this year, that he didn't have as much fun as he used to, he couldn't explain those thoughts properly though, so he wrote down the only thing that he thought of. He knew that his mother would be worried not knowing anything else than that he was doing fine, but she didn't have to know more…It was better that way…

_**Parvati had to duck down in order to not fall**_, the student that nearly knocked her down didn't slow down his pace or apologized though. In the process of ducking down the letter she was holding had fallen on the floor forcing Parvati to kneel down again and pick it up. The letter was now muddy and wet from the rain that had fallen and Parvati cursed the young boy who had pushed her aside.

She squeezed her eyes and tried to make out his form through the thick fog that was covering the owl post office, the boy had blonde hair and a tall, slim figure, he was wearing a dark blue woolen coat and a green and silver scarf. He was Draco Malfoy! Of course, Parvati thought, of course it was Malfoy, who else would be so rude?

She wondered what was Malfoy doing at the owl post office, but the cold weather and her stomach that rumbled from the hunger, urged her to leave. Parvati left the post office and set off towards the warm, welcoming and comfortable common room.

When she finally made it, the common room was empty save Lavender and Ginny. Both girls greeted her and asked her where she had been, they chatted for a while but silence came quickly between them. Parvati had the strange feeling that the air was charged between Ginny and Lavender, they were avoiding each other, and they barely shared a word since she had entered the common room.

She glanced at her friend who was reading a divination magazine and the red head and urged them to talk about something, causing Lavender to glance nervously towards Ginny's direction and Ginny to leave the room.

"What happened?" Parvati asked while unfolding her letter.

"I asked her what we were going to do with the _potion_... she said that she had to think of what Hermione would do. I told her that I had a plan but she ignored me! She ignored me! And then she mentioned Ron… " Parvati heard her friend sobbing quietly; she patted her back and hugged her understanding _what_ happened. Lavender was still very sensitive with the subject. Being dumped by Ron due to his love for Hermione Granger and knowing that Ginny valued Hermione more than her wasn't helping Lavender copy with her pain nor was it helping their relationship which was awkward and forced.

"Why don't you talk to her Lav?"

Lavender whipped her tears and hugged Parvati tighter. "Tell her what? She hates me. She probably thinks that I am stupid" Lavender lowered her voice and whispered "That's why she doesn't let me do anything"

Parvati patted her friend's back again and nodded, it was true that Ginny didn't want Lavender to be part of their plans, every time she volunteered Ginny claimed that they needed someone far more capable in rebelling against the dark forces. Same went for her.

Parvati fidgeted in her chair, an uneasy feeling rising inside her stomach, she wondered why people didn't take them seriously. It wasn't like her and Lavender were incapable of thinking a plan to rebel, they were both part of the original D.A and although they didn't have any experience in fighting against death eaters they were both eager to rebel. She understood that Ginny wasn't keen on having Lavender by her side, but that wasn't a reason to let her out of their plans. No matter how many times they volunteered to take part, they were never taken seriously by the other ones. After all they were the girls that gossiped and loved divination, who would take them seriously, right?

Parvati saw Lavender whipping her eyes again and the same determination was seen on her face. They would prove to everyone that they were as smart and brave as anyone else.

"It's a deal." Lavender said and beamed with satisfaction.

_**Two weeks have passed, two weeks of studying, studying and studying. **_Not many days were left for them to form their plans and attend the D.A meetings, the meetings being cancelled for more than one week.

Not much had happened over those two weeks, Snape seemed busy most of the time and they barely saw him during meals and the Carrows stopped torturing Neville as the boy didn't provoke them anymore. Everything seemed normal, the students were studying and having fun during weekends, the weather was getting colder and Halloween preparations were starting since October was ending soon and Halloween was soon to come. Nothing seemed out of place, if you ignored the fact that dementors were guarding the school and death eaters were placed as their teachers. Nothing seemed out of place, if you ignored the fact that Carrow was now showing them how to perform the imperius curse, not stopping at showing them but also using it on them, forcing them to do everything he wanted.

Nothing seemed out of place, if you ignored the group of students that were placed outside Carrow's and Snape's offices, ready to act again, after taking a two weeks break of any rebelling action.

_**Come back for the next chapter, where their rebellion will take place and we'll get a look inside the Defense against Dark Arts classroom.**_

_**Thank you for reading!**_


	15. Go blame your luck

_**After watching Neville and Luna getting close to each other I thought that a bit of fluff would be great, over the next chapters I will develop it better I promise. I am not sure if I will make them a couple or not yet but there's going to be some fluff.**_

_**If you want to know more about Felix Felicis and its effects (dangerous overconfidence, recklessness, giddiness) google it as I did or read the HP canon part. I thought that I could use the Felix Felicis to show a COMPLETELY different side of Neville. (Tell me what you think about it?)**_

_**Draco has a new goal, which he will develop through the series…**_

_**A bit of Ernie and Hannah…(I know that you're going to say, he would never act that irresponsibly but he is under lots of stress, think of that)-Ernie and Ginny will work it out eventually...**_

_**DOES THIS CHAPTER SUCK? If yes i'll rewrite it**_

Neville closed the door of the secret passage behind him, tacking Luna safely next to him. Heavy footsteps, and voices could be heard outside, cursing and screaming accompanied with spells he never heard before. It was a few seconds ago he was standing outside Snape's office with his wand inside his hand, the door in front of him partly destroyed, the large ugly gargoyle guarding it laying on the floor scattered in pieces. It was Lavender's idea to cause trouble by destroying Snape's and Carrow's office, the idea welcomed by the members of D.A as they were tired of rebelling by causing fireworks and destroying Snape's office seemed an offensive and efficient way to rebel.

Neville pulled Luna closer to him, staying close to each other until the voices outside the door faded. Luna who was keeping quite the whole time finally breathed and reluctantly opened the door, peeking outside to make sure that no one could see them.

As they waltzed down the corridor they saw the door of Snape's office partly fixed, only small pieces of rock, wood and metal being scattered on the floor. It took them so much time to organize the whole act, and even more time to learn the proper spells to explode the place, and the door was fixed in a matter of _seconds_.

Normally Neville would feel bitter for failing to cause permanent damage, to cause real trouble. Normally he would be scared as hell too; he wouldn't be casually waltzing down the corridor as if nothing happened that day. He would be freaked out and disappointed but all kind of unpleasant thoughts were replaced by a _confidence_ he sweared he never had before.

On his way back to the Great Hall Neville came across many of his enemies including Goyle (who he send away, when he tried to close his path, by simply telling him: "Get out of my way!"), Malfoy (who seemed to not notice him or not care) and last but not least Snape.

The most interesting and refreshing part of his newfound confidence being the fact that he encountered his biggest fear, Severus Snape and his deadly cold eyes and all kind of fear was vanished, and if not vanished, it was slowly fading away. Not only he didn't turn into a deep red color and started shaking from his fear but he even captured Snape's eyes with his own and threw a 'I don't give a damn" glare.

Neville casually walked in the Great Hall, carrying himself in a way he never did before. He didn't fall right into nearly-headless Nick who missed him and instead walked through Crabbe, he didn't trip over the banana that was set as a trap, and he even got some younger girls staring at him, drooling over his care-free spirit.

Luna, who was walking next to him, seemed to carry herself in the same way. Some may have wondered what the deal with those two was and why they were acting so strange.

The answer to that question would be simple, two words it was: _Felix_ _felicis_.

_**Ginny felt the giddiness and overconfidence washing upon her in big powerful waves that threatened to overwhelm the logical side of her brain. **_It wasn't logical for her to feel satisfied when their plan hasn't worked that well. Both Snipe and the Carrots were able to fix their doors and offices in a matter of few seconds and even though they didn't blame or torture anyone yet they would do so when their luck would end and suspicions would fall upon them.

Just by luck Ginny and Lavender managed to avoid Alecto Carrow on their way towards the Great Hall, it was also by luck that no one seemed to notice that the two girls were not dining as they should be, and that they came late for lunch. It was just by luck that Carrow started screaming and cursing but didn't make any effort to blame anyone for the destroyed door and nearly destroyed office of hers.

It was by luck that Filch didn't notice them walking away of Carrow's office, covered with dust and pieces of rock. All by luck it was! All due to the Felix felicis potion the four of them (Ginny, Neville, Luna and Lavender) took.

Ginny had taken the potion before and although it brought her immense amount of luck, it wasn't as powerful and overwhelming. She felt lucky, she felt confident on her actions, but she wasn't feeling reckless. Ginny wondered what caused the dangerous overconfidence of hers, was it the amount of the potion they took? Did she measure it wrong and gave them a bigger amount than they should have taken? Oh, I wish Hermione was here, Ginny thought, she would know what to do.

_**Neville finished his lunch and left the Great Hall, heading towards the room of requirement with Luna as his only companion. **_

He paced outside the invisible door, not picturing something particular in his mind, but a general idea of what he wanted being pictured by the potion's effects (the potion seemed to affect his mind in a strange way, it seemed like a voice was whispering to him what to do). The door opened and a small and warm room was revealed.

Cherry colored wood was covering the walls, wooden furniture being scattered all around matching the wall's colors. A small fireplace was there, a radio and a large empty space in front of it. He clicked on the radio and romantic music filled the room, a slow rhythm that begged him to dance. He was in the mood of dancing, not knowing why that particular thought seemed so appealing to him, and not caring either.

Neville watched Luna moving her body slowly side by side, her movements perfectly fitting the song's rhythm, her long hair shining from the orange colored fire. The voice inside his mind urged him to accompany her, to dance with her, no matter if a piece of his mind was screaming to him to stop the track of his thoughts as they were dangerous and he would get embarrassed at the end.

Luna's eyes found his, challenging him to take the first step. Her eyes were piercing, grey-blue swirls swirling inside them. Neville took a step forward and brought her hand inside his, the distance between them closing and closing until they were dangerously _close_ to each other. They moved together, and Neville thanked for the Yule Ball dance lessons and the Felix Felicis for not tripping on her and knocking her down.

Several moments have passed with the two of them dancing when Neville felt a strange feeling inside his mind, the powerful waves of ecstasy and giddiness that were crushing upon him for almost an hour retreating back. Luna seemed to experience the same feeling as her movements lost their musicality and rhythm. She accidently stepped on his foot and nearly knocked him down.

The embarrassment that the logical part of his mind warned him about finally came, making his cheeks go hot and red and his hands to start sweating. He took a step back and untangled himself from Luna, her cheeks growing red as his, her eyes looking everywhere else than him.

He didn't know what came upon him and he decided to dance with her that way, he could only blame the potion he took for the recklessness and complete absence of fear and embarrassment. He wanted to say something, to explain why he started dancing with his best friend in such proximity but he found no excuses so he said the first thing he thought of.

"Felix Felicis…"

Luna nodded and smiled, her cheeks getting hotter than ever, she nodded again and showed him the door. Several moments later they were leaving the room, heading towards their classes.

_**Draco listened to Goyle and Crabbe planning a way to get to Longbottom, punish him for his disrespectful behavior towards Goyle, he nodded when needed and pretended to be as frustrated as they were. **_ Deep down though he didn't care for Long bottom's behavior, he didn't feel the urge to punish him either, more important thoughts and needs occupied his mind.

His mother hadn't replied to his letter even after a week passed, and he had no way to communicate with her again, no way to ask her if everything was fine back home. With the letters being _opened_ and _read_ it was hard for him to write about the situation inside Malfoy manor without getting _compromised_. And even if he managed to conceal his real worries inside a fake happy note, the letter would still not reach its destination, as the dark lord didn't let the Malfoy's to communicate with their son whenever they wanted it.

It was all part of his plan to _punish_ them for their failure, for _his_ failure. It was all due to his failure of killing Dumbledore, that his parents were forced to stay inside their house, that they were mistreated by the dark lord and the other death eaters, that they never gained their status and power back.

Sometimes Draco wished that he wasn't such a coward, wished that he killed his ex-headmaster and gained the dark lord's appreciation. No matter if the _fire_ for _power_ and _recognition_ he felt over the last year wasn't burning him anymore; he still needed to gain his appreciation, not for him, but for his family.

He spent his sixth year detached by everyone and everything due to his obsession of fixing the closet and his fear of failing his mission. And now he spent his seventh year again detached by everyone and everything, again spending his days inside Myrtle's bathrooms (she always listened to him without judging him), for his fear of getting killed by the dark lord. Things haven't changed that much, he was still scared and unsure of his next steps, his mother was still scared for his life and his father was still expecting him to fix everything.

Draco listened to Goyle and Crabbe talking about Longbottom and Potter, and how Potter wouldn't be there to save him and his mind travelled to his old enemy. Where was he anyways? Was he hiding or was he building an army? Was he trying to find a way to defeat the dark lord?

And then the idea struck him suddenly, the path he had to follow revealing itself to him.

How he never thought about it before? Potter would eventually return to his old school trying to overthrow Snape. What if Draco found Potter and gave him to the dark lord? By capturing him Draco would gain his lord's appreciation once and for all.

"**I am telling you, they will get back to me, they will find a way to punish me for the way I talked to Goyle. Oh! Why did I have to take the potion?" **Neville's lips trembled, the effect of the potion wearing off completely, leaving him back to his old self, the one with the self-esteem problems.

"Because it helped us pull of our plan without getting captured." Ginny said, feeling herself the effects of the potion wearing off. "Nethertheless we will have to be very careful while measuring the portion each of us has to drink next time, hmmm maybe if I asked Ernie. He would know…"

Ginny and Neville walked side by side towards their classrooms, after leaving Luna at her class. It was a very uncomfortable conversation the one that took place inside the classroom, with Luna and Neville acting strange towards each other and blushing each time their eyes met. Ginny wondered what happened between her two friends and why they were acting so strange. She never saw them being so uncomfortable with each other so something had happened between the two of them and she was about to find out what soon.

"Luna was acting strange earlier, know anything about it?"

"I have…I have….no idea…" Neville stuttered, blushing furiously. Ginny urged him to talk to her, warning him that she would find out and it was better if she find out from him rather than Luna. Neville who always succumbed to Ginny's wishes blushed again and started whispering so quietly that she could barely make out his words. "We…danced…during a couple of…hmmm….romantic songs….we were both under the potion's effect of course." He added a bit too quickly. Ginny's eyes rolled and she hold back her laugher not wanting to upset her friend, he was so awkward when he was around girls that it was almost funny that the potion made him _that_ confident.

"Of course, under the potion's effect, it's not like you enjoyed it right?" Ginny hold back her laugher again, her face trembling from the effort.

"No, no of course not, we….are…well…we are friends, not that she can't dance because she can, and she is a lovely girl, anyone would fancy her, but we….are…friends."

Ginny wondered if Neville was secretly attracted to Luna, she never saw Neville fancying someone before, she never saw him talking to girls either, the only time Neville went on a 'date' with a girl was back at the Yule Ball when they danced together. Not that it could be considered as a date, the only reason she went with him was that she wanted to attend the ball and by being a 3rd year student she wasn't allowed to. Neville was the perfect excuse to attend the ball as Harry didn't seem to notice her back then.

Now that she thought about it, she used to be like him, she remembered the days she spent planning on talking to Harry and never doing so due to her fear of getting rejected. It seemed like those days were million years ago, in another life, an easier, care-free life when she didn't have to worry about death eaters and her loved ones, when her only worries were Harry rejecting her, and failing to make a potion.

"You are thinking of him." Neville said, she nodded and smiled sadly, she was thinking of Harry, yes she was. She missed him more than anything, she missed hearing his voice, she missed his stutter when he was about to tell her something and he was feeling shy, she missed his eyes and his messy hair. Oh, how much she missed him! She wished she could turn time back or that he would come back to school, come and find her and fix everything.

_**Hannah Abbot's body bent down in an awkward looking position, her hands stretched far away of her body, her eyes clouded and empty.**_

Ernie watched his friend's body moving dangerously close to the edge of her desk knowing what would come next. Hannah was all of a sudden free of the curse and being dazed and confused by the feeling, she lost control of her knees and fell down, hitting her head on the edge of her desk, blood coming out of her wound. The view of the large wound and the blood that was falling down her face made him sick to his stomach.

He tried to move his feet or open his mouth, but his lips seemed glued together and his body was numb, he couldn't move and he couldn't feel anything. Carrow had spelled the entire classroom, forcing them to stay still and quiet during the time he used the imperious curse on Hannah. He used the curse for over five minutes, worst minutes of Ernie's life, forcing Hannah to do whatever he wanted. The girl didn't seem to be able to resist the power of the curse, every time he ordered her to do something she did it no matter if she wanted it or not, not that she could want anything, she seemed lost.

Ernie was screaming inside him, but his scream didn't come out, oh how he wished to be able to resist the spell, how he wished to be able to stand up and curse Carrow for using his friend. But no matter how much he wanted it, he couldn't, he was powerless and so was Hannah.

There was no way for her to resist even though they had to face the curse before, during fake moody's classes, no one but Harry managed to fight it. If only Harry could come back, if only he could lead the D.A again and teach them how to fight the curse, if only Hannah was lucky enough to not be picked again, lucky….lucky…

Of course, all they needed was luck, and Ginny happened to have a bottle of liquid luck, maybe if Ginny shared her potion with the other members of the D.A they wouldn't be picked again. But that wouldn't be fair, if they wouldn't be picked someone else would and no one had to face such fate.

How selfish it was for him to think only of his and his friend's fate? How could he stand by and watch the other students getting used or tortured when he knew that he could help them somehow?

_**Neville cleared his throat in order to get everyone's attention, the room of requirement filled with members, after getting invited for a new D.A meeting from Ernie.**_Ernie wanted to talk to them about something but so far he had no luck, since everyone seemed to be more interested in Ginny's Felix Felicis than hearing him out.

"Guys, guys calm down!"

"And girls!" Luna said loudly, catching his attention, he glanced at her and wondered if everything was fine with them, if they were still friends. Nothing happened they only danced, so why wouldn't they be friends, right?

"Let's hear what Ernie has to say!"

Ernie mimicked Neville by clearing his throat; he stood up and addressed the crowd: "Hannah was cursed today." He momentarily glanced at his friend and continued. "It's the second time Carrow picks her to demonstrate the imperious curse." The crowd immediately got quiet knowing that it was truth and watching Ernie's serious yet devastated look. "I can't stand by watching her being used that way; you have no idea what he makes her do." He pushed away a limp in his throat and continued with the same determination. "Ginny, I need your Felix Felicis. We need it, all of us, I think that we should share it between us and if it's enough for everyone we could give some to other students, non D.A members."

Neville who was listening to Ernie talking about Hannah, nodding sympathetically, froze, it wasn't like he never thought of the possibility of having the other members of the D.A wanting to taste the potion (hell, he even thought of it himself, he wanted to taste it again, the potion helped him deal with his fears and insecurities better than anything) but he never imagined them actually asking it.

He glanced at Ginny and saw her all frozen up like him; she seemed perplexed, shifting uncomfortably on her chair. Her hands gripped tighter the potion, the movement not missed by Ernie.

"I am afraid I can't do that, we need the potion, we need luck to be able to rebel without getting caught."

Neville nodded acknowledging the truth behind her words; however he perfectly understood why Ernie wanted it too.

Ernie was taken aback for a second but he quickly took hold of his emotions, he stared at Ginny and raised his eyebrows in question, frowning slightly.

"What you mean you can't do that Ginny?"

"I understand why you want it but I can't give it."

Ernie frowned again, his temper rising, he stood silent for a few moments, staring at Ginny as not recognizing her anymore.

"Hannah was cursed, he made Parvati jump on her feet for 15 minutes, they tortured Neville by cutting his face, and you can't give it to us?"

Ginny whose temper was famous among the students stood up and faced Ernie.

"Do you think that I don't care? Of course I care, but if we share it now we won't have any later when we will need it."

"And you think that we don't need it during our DADA classes?" Ernie spitted back.

Hannah quickly got between the two of them, trying to calm them down before anything happened. "Please Ernie, don't make it a big deal, I am fine."

"No you are not fine, give it to me Ginny."

"No!" Ginny took a step back and gripped her potion tighter, holding it behind her back. Ernie reached towards her, and tried to take it out of her hand but Ginny used her free hand to push him away

"Give it to me!" Ernie reached again but Ginny took a step back and pushed him away more violently this time.

Hannah started crying, her tears falling over her cheeks and lips, she tried to get between them but they pushed her away, too engaged into their fight to care.

"You are selfish, you know that? You can help _everyone_ and you won't give it."

Ginny gasped, thrown away for a moment she brought her hands in front of her body giving Ernie the perfect opportunity to grab the potion. Neville who was watching their fight taking place in front of him lashed forward and tried to bring some sense into them but he accidently tripped and lost control falling on top of Ernie, breaking the fragile bottle of the potion into million pieces.

A familiar image played inside his mind, another glass object breaking into million pieces due to his actions, a round crystal ball inside the department of the mysteries. Both objects were way important to be destroyed that way and the fact that it was his fault they were destroyed pierced through his heart like an arrow.

"I am so sorry, I am sorry Ginny, Ernie, I am so sorry." Neville stuttered and run out of the room, leaving Ernie and Ginny looking star struck at the broken bottle.

He was followed suit by Luna who found him hiding inside an empty classroom, crying his eyes off, he quickly whipped his tears away, ashamed to be seen crying. Luna sat next to him and hugged him tightly whispering that it wasn't his fault.

"It's not your fault, Neville. It happened and we can do nothing about it, Michael and Terry are trying to find a way to save the liquid and store it inside another bottle, Ernie and Ginny…well…they will come into their senses..He was shaken up after watching Hannah being cursed, I understand."

"Are you always that smart?" Neville asked Luna, smiling playfully he took a strand of her hair and pushed it behind her ear, he never noticed it before but her hair was beautiful, blonde, wavy and soft.

Luna gave him a smile and winked. "No, only when I need to. You'll be ok, you know, without the potion, you don't need luck, you are able to pull off whatever you want without it."


	16. Potterwatch

Ginny pushed aside her ever increasing pile of homework and massaged her sore neck and shoulders. Her body was sore and her fingers were numb; however after writing a fifteen pages essay she expected nothing more.

The common room was empty and quite as Neville had call it a night after finishing his transfiguration essay and Ginny was left alone with a pile of papers and books in front of her. Ginny glanced at the last word of her essay and reassured herself that she had done her best, she quickly stood up, and cast a spell for the books to stuck one upon another and fly towards her bedroom.

There was only one thing left on the table and she intended it to be left aside, she didn't have time to read it during her very busy day and as the night fell and no one could interrupt her it was the perfect time for her to read it. Ginny reluctantly unfolded the package; a long piece of parchment was stuck inside with a smaller one that seemed like a quickly written last minute note. She expected the letter to be written by her mom, or both her parents therefore she was pleasantly surprised to see that the letter came from her twin brothers, Fred and George.

"Ginny,

We know that you are surprised of hearing from us; we never thought that the day would come that _we_ would write to _you_.

Mom and dad wanted to write to you too, they were busy though, dad with work, mom with cooking, cleaning up, and nursing Ron, you know how whiny he can be when he is sick."

Ginny rolled her eyes on the last comment and kept reading.

"We are sure that mom won't be able to stop herself from writing to you though. We bet she is writing her letter right now.

Oh, I almost forgot, Fred bought me those lee earrings you loved so much during the wedding, I am wearing them right now, and we are inseparable. Fred won't stop teasing me that I look like Kingsley but I don't find it funny. I actually think that I am handsome enough to become a celebrity; maybe a quidditch career would suit me. However Fred says I should work on a radio station, my voice is very characteristic and unforgettable.

Fred & George."

Ginny closed the letter completely confused and lost, the letter was clearly an attempt to conceal whatever they were trying to tell her but she had no idea what they were talking about. She read the letter again and again and tried to make any sense of it but no matter how many times she read it she still had no idea what they wanted her to understand.

The smaller piece of paper grabbed her attention and she decided to read it.

"Ginny,

I am so sorry for not writing to you for weeks, we were extremely busy as you can understand. I hope that you act as the good girl you are and don't cause any trouble, unfortunately we won't be able to see you during Halloween but we'll have you back during Christmas.

Love,

Mom and Dad."

Ginny immediately recognized her mother's handwriting, but the letter didn't help to clear up her very confused mind.

What did all those stuff about quidditch, changing career, and lee earrings meant? When did she mention lee earrings to them, and why the hell were they writing to her about them? She didn't even know what lee earrings were, how she could love them, the only thing she knew named lee was….._Lee_ _Jordan_.

"_Fred bought me those lee earrings you loved so much during the wedding, I am wearing them right now, and we are inseparable." _

Could that mean that Lee Jordan was with them, she was after all dancing with him during the wedding party, and the twins and he were inseparable.

One down, more to go, Ginny thought. Now that she had deciphered the first code, she had to understand what _Kingsley_, _celebrity_ and _radio_ _station_ meant. She had a feeling that those were the key words to deciphering the whole code.

_**Ernie Macmillan placed his wand on top of the wooden radio and repeated the same words all over again.**_

"Dumbledore" Ernie expected the station to start emitting, but nothing happened, the only thing that could be heard inside the room was the breathing of the students gathered all around the radio.

"Maybe we should try Harry Potter?" Hannah suggested but Ernie turned down her suggestion immediately. "No I tried it already it's not Harry Potter. Hmmm, Moody" Ernie placed his wand again and murmured the words hoping that something would happen.

"Are you sure about this mate? Are you sure that there's such radio station?" Ernie eyed Seamus and nodded, beginning to wonder himself if the station existed, he started saying all the names that came inside his mind but nothing worked.

"Hmmm, I don't know what else to try. But I am sure, I've heard couple of 6th year Ravenclaws talking about it. Haven't you heard about it, Luna, Padma?" Ernie saw the two girls looking at each other, no one else had heard of such station and Ernie was starting to feel stupid for bringing it up in the first place.

Moments passed and no one answered, Ernie tried couple more names but eventually closed the radio and sat down. He saw Ginny's face changing from annoyance (the expression her face took every time she saw him lately) to acknowledgment. She quickly stood up from her chair, took her wand out of her pocket, and whispered a name he barely heard. "Kingsley"

Ernie glanced at the radio and nearly fell down from his chair when a loud voice startled him, the voice came from the radio and was oddly familiar. The voice was soon accompanied by another voice, and after a while a third voice, the three voices were all oddly familiar and he could swear that he had heard them somewhere before but he couldn't remember where. He was about to ask where, when Neville stood up and glanced at Ginny, his mouth was wide open and his eyes darted between the radio and Ginny.

"Fred and George? How? " Ginny nodded and smiled, she placed her hand inside her pocket and this time took out a large piece of parchment, she started reading the letter that revealed that Fred and George had started a pirate station with Lee Jordan, a pirate station that told the truth about the war and supported Harry Potter. She said that she understood what the letter meant the moment she heard about the radio station but she had to be sure before she did anything.

Neville was about to ask something but the whole room got quiet when the voice which apparently belonged to Lee Jordan read the names of all the missing or killed persons.  
>"Let us remind you the names of the persons that are still missing: Stephanie Jones…Seth Lewsley, Dean Thomas…And now it's time for our program to end, take care of each other and don't stop resisting. The new password will be Moody."<p>

The radio suddenly died and the tension inside the room could be cut with a knife. No one moved, or talked, or even breathed, they all stared at the radio, realizing just how horrible this war was.

_**Seamus closed his eyes and breathed through his nose, even the simplest thing as breathing made him sick. **_It was moments ago he had heard Dean's name as one of the missing ones, and even though it was not big news to him (he already knew that for a while), it shook him up right to his core. He didn't know why but hearing Dean's name on the radio pained him more than anything, it seemed more real this way, and it hit him hard.

He had heard the names of the other missing persons but they seemed like a blur of names and ages and locations, nothing particular, nothing personal, nothing that could affect him as much as knowing that maybe Dean's name would be next on the killed by death eaters list.

He wondered where Dean was and what he was up to. Was he hiding somewhere? Maybe he had found a secret place to hide, but was it safe for him to be there? What if death eaters or snatchers found him? Would he be able to resist them and get away?

Seamus sensed Neville moving next to him, his friend placed his hand on his shoulder sympathetically and told him to not worry. Seamus tried to smile, he tried to smile so hard, but managed nothing more than a grimace of pain and worry. He was worried, very worried, not only for Dean's fate but for his family's fate too. What would happen to them if death eaters decided to torture them, kill them? The mere thought scared him so much that he felt useless for not doing anything to help things change.

If only he could do something to change the world, to stop this silent but ever present war, if only he could somehow fight against death eaters and win, but how could he? After all he was just a teenager, stuck inside a castle.

_**Ginny heard Lee Jordan's voice die over the radio, and felt her stomach twist into a knob. **_It was after a long time she had news of the world outside the castle and hearing so many names of missing or killed persons made her worry more than ever. She was worried that her family's names would be on that list one day, Harry's, Hermione's and Ron's names would be there too. All persecuted, all tortured, all killed. And Ginny could do nothing for that.

For the first time that year Ginny thought that maybe her life wasn't that bad as she thought, maybe there were people that suffered more than her. After all she was stuck inside the castle, protected by her caring and protective teachers, having only to worry about the Carrows and not tons of death eaters and survival. Being stuck inside the castle bothered her though, although she knew that her mom was revealed knowing that Ginny had her teachers to take care of her, she wanted to be out there, with her parents and Harry, fight with them, protect them.

Ginny shook her head and stopped the track of her thoughts, not wanting to feel morose again, she had to be strong, she had to keep resisting, and maybe while resisting she could find a way to help Harry and her parents, maybe _she_ could save them.

_**Sorry for the terrible, terrible chapter. I have no inspiration lately, and I've been super busy. A little preview for the next chapter: Ginny tries to find a way to help Harry. Neville and Luna help her. Can you guess how did Ginny try to help Harry? It was part of the original canon, and it involves stealing something from an office. Guess what?**_

_**In this chapter I wanted to bring some of Fred and George and the Potterwatch, as it's going to be a huge part of the D.A for the next months.**_

_**For those who keep track we are on November, and we are really close to the event of stealing something (hem, hem) and Luna being kidnapped. So stay tuned!**_


	17. Next chapter preview: stealing the Sword

_**Sorry for not posting for so many days, I am back to writing this story. For a while I thought that no one was reading this but then I've seen that many of you have favorite it and I couldn't be more happy.**_

_**If anyone is reading this, leave a little comment for me to know to keep writing this or not.**_

_**Here's a little preview of what's about to happen on the next chapter.**_

Ginny Weasley closed a whole world and beginned a new path, a path that would lead her into unknown territories, probably dangerous ones.

She felt as part of her childhood and innocence had died inside her. She no longer saw any meaning to rebelling by causing fireworks to appear all around the school or destroying Snape's office, and as the days passed and Christmas time approached she saw those "rebelling acts" as what they truly were: "childish pranks".

Ginny knew, as Seamus knew, as Luna and Neville knew that if they wanted to change something they had to come up with a serious plan.

Over the next day's numerous ideas and plans formed inside her mind, but as they seemed non effective and childish, they stayed inside her mind and eventually died. She was in dead end, she had no new ideas, and the same ideas were repeated again and again. And as the days came and went, and Halloween approached, Ginny felt like nothing could fix her mood.

She went to her classes, studied, slept, went to the D.A meetings but nothing seemed to matter to her as long as her mind was blank.

She had no idea how to help Harry, Ron and Hermione on their mission and her brothers didn't help either, yes, Fred and George had provided her with the information about their pirate radio station but no news about Harry and his whereabouts could be heard by the station.

Her parent's letters were short and provided no information either, and Ginny fell into the loophole more and more and no one and nothing could help her escape it.

She couldn't sleep at nights and she couldn't concentrate during classes, her mind was always focused on Harry and the little information he provided her about his mission. She wished Harry had opened up to her, that he wasn't so secretive, she wished she knew as many things as Hermione and Ron knew, but Dumbledore had made it that way so no one but Harry, Hermione and Ron knew about their mission. Not even her, not even the Order of Phoenix, not even the Ministry.

The word "Ministry" trigged a memory inside her and Ginny finally came up with a plan to help her ex-boyfriend.

Dumbledore wanted Harry to have the Sword of Gryffindor but the Minister of Magic wouldn't give it to him, and although Ginny had no idea why he needed it , she knew that if Dumbledore meant for it to belong to Harry, it was essential for him to succeed on his mission.

Ginny had seen the Sword before, inside Snape's office, behind the headmaster's chair. She would steal the Sword of Gryffindor and then somehow send it to Harry. It wouldn't be that difficult right? Hermione and Harry had managed to sneak a dragon through the castle, she could do the same with a tiny little sword, couldn't she?

"_**You want us to steal the Sword of Gryffindor?" Neville asked not believing his own words, he knew that Ginny was desperate enough to come up with crazy ideas but that one was crazier than he could ever imagine. **_

"Yes, think about it Neville" Ginny said and gave her best puppy eye pleading Neville to agree with her. "_Dumbledore_ wanted Harry to have the Sword! It must be important for his mission."

"But…."

Neville was about to protest when Ginny stopped him by putting her hand in front of him and motioning him to stop complaining.

"You went to the ministry with him. Is my idea any crazier than going to the ministry of magic? We could distract Snape by destroying the seventh floor, this way he will be busy and we will be able to enter his office and steal the Sword." Ginny said and pleaded again for Neville to understand her need to do something, to act, to help Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Luna will help us too, right Luna?" Ginny asked and glanced at her friend.

_**(Ginny actually tries to steal the Sword in Deathly Hallows- so this part will follow the book's storyline)**_


	18. Different intentions, same target

_**I am so sorry for taking so long to update, I am happy that there are people that enjoy reading this story (Yes LoneElfFight, xxfluffyxx123, hippothestrowl I am referring to you), I'll try to upload the next chapter in a few days. The title of this chapter is:**_

"_**Different intentions, same target." (You'll know what I mean when you'll read this)**_

_**The title of the next chapter will be: "Stealing the sword and the Forbidden forest."**_

_**Enjoy and review. Your reviews make my day.**_

_**p.s LoneElfFight there will be a news story on Harry being spotted after Christmas time so stay tuned. The story just gets better and better.**_

"You went to the ministry with him. Is my idea any crazier than going to the ministry of magic? We could distract Snape by destroying the seventh floor, this way he will be busy and we will be able to enter his office and steal the Sword." Ginny said and pleaded again for Neville to understand her need to do something, to act, to help Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Luna will help us too, right Luna?" Ginny asked and glanced at her friend.

Luna who was quietly listening to the conversation between her friends, nodded her head and threw a smile towards Ginny's direction:

"Of course…"

"But Luna…" Neville stuttered feeling at loss of words.

"We promised we would be there for Harry, Neville. The day we helped him infiltrate the ministry." Luna smiled towards Neville's direction this time, her eyes shining with happiness and confidence. "After all, my father says that we should trust Dumbledore, so if Dumbledore wanted Harry to have the Sword there must be a reason behind that.¨

Neville took a deep steady breath, his head felt heavy and his breath was hitched making breathing hard for him. He wasn't sure how a care-free afternoon had turned into this confusing and highly dangerous conversation. Dangerous due to the fact that nothing he could say could change Ginny's mind, she had decided to steal the sword and take it to Harry and he could do nothing to stop her. He breathed again and closed his eyes, trying to arrange his thoughts into a coherent line.

"Ok, let's say that I help you with your plan, how on Merlin's sake will we infiltrate Snape's office? Do you know the password Ginny? Or do you Luna?" His voice had a slightly accusing tone but he quickly changed it into a strict one. "This plan is doomed, we have no password and no way to grab the _sword_ and take it outside the office and into the castle without getting caught. We also have no idea where Harry is…"

Ginny shifted around nervously, pressing her fingers against her red hair-covered skull. "I know, but I will find the password, and we'll steal the sword at night when everybody will be sleeping. As for finding Harry, we'll find a way…"

Neville looked at Ginny again wondering if the girl was trying to conceive him or herself. The truth was that their plan was highly dangerous and hard to pull of and without knowing where Harry was and his whereabouts it sounded even more desperate and pointless. However he could sense how desperate Ginny was and how much she needed their help so he decided to agree with her plan to steal the Sword of Gryffindor.

"I have faith that we will get the password right" Luna said in her typical calm tone. She hugged her friends tightly and left the room, announcing that she knew someone who knew the password.

_**Draco Malfoy walked down the corridors of Hogwarts, avoiding a crazy looking Luna Lovegood who was running down the corridors in hurry rambling something about a password. Draco kept walking and walking, replaying his plan inside his mind, when he came across the persons he was searching for.**_

"Crabbe, Goyle, I need to talk to you both. I have a plan."

"You have a plan?" Goyle asked, with his face looking partly amused partly annoyed. "And why would we care for a plan of yours?"

"Because I know that you seek the dark lord's appreciation." Draco said confidently knowing that he had found the perfect excuse to make his friends agree to help him out.

"We already have the dark lord's appreciation" Goyle said smiling proudly. "We don't need your help, Malfoy"

"Oh you do?" Malfoy asked sarcastically enjoying the course of the conversation. "How did you get it, by torturing a little _helpless_ spider inside a _classroom_?"

Draco noticed that the smug expression on Goyle's face disappeared and annoyance took over with his round face getting redder any second. He also noticed the way his fist clenched and unclenched, however he didn't care, he enjoyed bullying him.

"Let him speak" Crabbe said, his eyes travelled on Malfoy's face and his surroundings wondering what was Malfoy talking about.

"We'll catch Potter and take him to the dark lord."

"Potter isn't here…"

"I know that moron, we'll catch him when he'll come back. He'll come back I am sure, he has the hero syndrome he won't be able to stay away of saving his favorite castle for long."

"I don't think that he'll ever come up, he is probably hiding away trying to save his life." Crabbe said but his tone indicated that he wasn't sure about his sayings, that he was considering Malfoy's plan.

"He'll come back one day, that's just how he works, remember that his friends and girlfriend are here. I am sure he'll come back to save them. And then he will we'll catch him and gain dark lord's appreciation."

"Or I will" Malfoy thought and smiled again, knowing that his plan was the perfect way for his power and status to come back and for his family to be appreciated and respected again by the circles of the dark lord.

_**Luna Lovegood run towards the common room of Ravenclaw avoiding Malfoy on her way, she knew that Michael Corner had visited Snape's office the other day, she was sure that he had heard the password coming out of Snape's mouth. However Michael didn't seem to know the password, as he claimed that Snape changed it every single day after the incident of the destruction of his office.**_

Feeling rather morose for the first time in her life Luna left the common room and headed back towards the Room of Requirement, where she found Ginny and Neville standing at the same place even though ten minutes had passed, they didn't seem to want to move or talk, they stood motionless looking at the wall. She quickly told them the news and the three of them decided to try and guess the password. Luna and Neville started throwing random phrases and words however none of them seemed to satisfy Ginny.

"Throwing random phrases out there won't help us. Try and think of something more likely. Get into Snape's head. What password would he realistically come up with?" Ginny asked scratching with her pen the phrases and words they had come up with.

If Dumbledore were still the headmaster, passing the gargoyle would have been easy: all they would have to do is recite the name of every candy known to wizard and muggle, until they got the password right. But Snape? It wasn't so simple. His word or phrase of choice could be anything. They had already recited the names of all the potions they could think of, potion ingredients, laboratory supplies and equipments, words that evoked evil and darkness, and some of Snape's insults. Of course, the password could be anything, even something very un-snapey, just so he would be unpredictable.

A long list of names and phrases was laying on the table in front of Ginny, the list getting longer and longer any second, hundreds of potion ingredients and potion related names being written by her and her friends.

"Okay, how about people that Snape might admire like Salazar Slytherin?" Neville asked, filling the paper with the name and writing down the names of other well known slytherins.

"You Know Who. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The Dark Lord." Ginny bit her lip.

"I don't think that he would use the name of you-know-who as a password." Luna said but Neville smiled sadly and wrote the names down.

"Why not? He can do anything he wants he is our headmaster and we are all under the regime of you-know-who."

"Neville is right. What if we asked a professor or the ones coming out of his office, sure they'll know the password?" Ginny said while folding the paper and placing it inside her robe. Their plan was already set.


	19. Stealing the Sword of Gryffindor

_**And I am back! I am so happy that you liked my last chapter, your comments brought me so much joy and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well. Things are getting pretty serious now, so stay tuned! I am back to switching points of view, hope it isn't hard for you to keep up. Tell me what you think….?**_

Neville swallowed the last piece of his meat pie and quickly stood up, motioning at Luna to follow him and Ginny. The three of them spend their afternoons hiding inside the safety of the room of requirement, trying to find the right password to enter Snape's office and the right way to take the stolen sword outside the castle. Meanwhile they were studying and chatting with other D.A members, who were all eager and ready to help but the three of them were determinate to steal the sword themselves, not wanting to put their friends in danger.

Finding the password wasn't an easy thing to do, it was a lot more difficult than they thought and it left them a little, if not none time, to plan their way out of the office. And if that wasn't enough Neville was constantly fearing that Snape was spying on him.

"Snape kept staring at me. Or at least I felt like he did," Neville said and shook his head irritably. "I'm so tense I'm starting to imagine things."

He waited for his friends to start arguing with him but strangely Ginny seemed to fear the same thing. She even feared that he was somehow reading her mind. If it wasn't for Luna who was serene as always, he wasn't sure how they would copy with the stress.

Fortunately the password was found after a lot of searching and writing down names and it was as unusual and crazy as it took: "Lily of the valley"

What the hell did that particular _flower_ had to do with Snape and why would he ever use such a crazy password they didn't know, however the moment they found it, they were ready to proceed with their plan.

Three days later Neville and Luna were standing nervously in the deserted corridor outside Snape's office, waiting for Ginny to come. It was late at night, and the castle was quiet as everyone was sleeping.

Neville felt Luna fidgeting, repeating the plan again and again, he wondered if she was as scared as he was, but the moment the thought came inside his mind, it disappeared. Luna was smiling broadly again, oozing confidence.

Ginny came to meet them soon enough, however the look in her eyes wasn't the one Neville expected to see. Ginny didn't seem scared or eager or confident but worried and _angry. _He was about to ask her what happened, but the look in her eyes stopped his track of thoughts.

Ginny swallowed hard and opened her hands revealing…_nothing_.

"The Felix Felicis was stolen by my room." She said, her hands slight shaking by frustration or desperation he couldn't know. "I searched it everywhere but nothing…"

No one moved or talked, the three of them just looked at each other acknowledging the harsh reality. They had no luck to help them steal the sword but they couldn't stop now, they were all set and ready and they had to steal it.

"Now or never" Ginny said, and even thought he was even more scared than before, Neville nodded and took a step forward. The ugly, large gargoyle was now facing him, stone cold and intimidating.

"Lily of the valley" Neville said and the gargoyle moved opening a passage for them to enter and slowly the three teenagers entered the deserted office.

The office was empty, silent and dark due to no light coming out of the windows or any candle. It was decorated simply, except the numerous bottles of potions and potion involved books scattered all around.

Neville gazed around and wondered if Dumbledore ever lived there. There were no silver instruments, no bowls of sweets, no bright golden bird. No sign that Albus Dumbledore was ever a headmaster of Hogwarts. But there protected by a glass case, on a bed of red velvet, rested the sword of Gryffindor, the only thing that reminded him of his school's glorious past. Neville took a slow step toward it. He hardly breathed. Everything was still. And for a brief second Neville seriously entertained the thought that they might, just might, get away with this.

"You carry it" Luna said and motioned towards the sword. "You are the man, remember?"

Neville nodded and took a step forward, his heart beating faster than ever and his fists covered with sweat. He never imagined himself stealing the sword of Gryffindor, hell he never imagined himself _carrying_ it.

But his hand was now holding an ancient, legendary, goblin-made sword. A sword only true Gryffindors could hold, and Neville wished that his parents and grandmother could see him. Or better not, a voice said inside him, would they be proud of you for _stealing_ it?

_**Ginny took a deep calming breath, the first step of their mission was done, they had entered Snape's office, now they had to leave without anyone noticing them. However the moment she was about to leave the office, a strict and loud voice spoke.**_

"How dare you enter here without permission, ungrateful children?"

It was Phineas Nigellus Black, the ex-headmaster and supporter of Snape.

Ginny quickly motioned him to stop talking, wishing that he didn't see the sword inside Neville's hands but it was too late, he had already seen the sword and he had also disappeared, murmuring about the sword and Snape.

Ginny and Luna stormed outside the office, running faster than ever, with Neville following them, running a little slower due to the weight of the sword inside his hands. Her heart was pounding fast and hard and her legs were on fire however she didn't stop running.

They had already left the floor and were heading towards the stairs, running as fast as the wind, when a voice a lot more frightening than Black's spoke.

"Stop now!"

Ginny felt rather than saw Neville falling down, with the sword falling as well, a loud noise being heard when it hit the floor, Luna soon followed suit. Without being able to react somehow, she felt her body freezing and she fell down as well, hitting her head on the floor, while doing so.

Soon she felt hands grabbing her and forcing her to stand up, she saw her friends being pushed forward by people, their faces hidden by the darkness of the corridor.

She was inside Snape's office, again, this time with the sword inside Snape's hands.

He was holding the sword and she couldn't do anything to take it back, and not only she lost the sword but her friends would be punished for stealing it as severely as she would.

She heard Snape talking, threatening them with the worst kind of punishments, his eyes menacing, dark and cold. However his words didn't mean anything to her, she felt nothing than rage inside her, no fear, no panic, nothing than a rather powerful kind of rage she never felt before.

"It belongs to Harry, the sword belongs to him, Dumbledore gave it to him and you know it." Ginny said, clenching her teeth and looking straight at Snape's eyes. He quickly returned the glance and smiled.

"Yes, but he is dead, isn't he? And your friend is gone, hiding, trying to save his pathetic little life!"

Snape looked at Dumbledore's sleeping portrait and Ginny silently cursed her headmaster for not being awake, for not helping them out. He returned his glare back to her, and the intensity of it made her legs shake for a split second but she quickly got her feelings under control and decided to project her frustration instead of the desperation she felt growing inside her stomach.

"He isn't hiding and you know it and so does your master."

"Stop you stupid girl." Snape warned and after a sharp move of his hands he ordered for the people surrounding Ginny, Neville and Luna to leave.

"Now tell me what you were doing with the Sword of Gryffindor." Ginny saw his white pale hands grabbing the sword and bringing it closer to his body and her instinct told her to jump forward, tackle him down and grab the sword.

"It belongs to Harry, he was the one that took it outside the hat…"

But Ginny didn't have time to finish her sentence, as Snape moved his hand again, forcing her to stop talking.

"It doesn't belong to him, nor will it ever belong, Mrs. Weasley and now if you excuse me I have more important things to do. You and your friends will be punished though. Tomorrow night, the three of you will go at the Forbidden Forest with that giant friend of yours, Hagrid."

_**One could tell that the image of Severus Snape standing inside his office, looking at Dumbledore's portrait wasn't an unusual image, however Severus Snape looking at Dumbledore's portrait with pained eyes was quite an unusual image. **_

"You did what you had to do, Severus and now could you please show me the felix felicis? I am getting tired and I wish to sleep soon." Snape looked at Dumbledore's face again and took a little bottle filled with gold liquid outside his pocket.

The headmaster's office was empty now and with all the portraits sleeping, except that of Dumbledore, Severus finally had a chance to chat with his mentor about the events of that night.

"Good, good, I am glad that our plan worked fairly well." Dumbledore said and yawned, stretching his hands and his body.

"Well? How did our plan work when they tried to steal the sword?"

"But isn't this what we anticipated to happen, Severus? And didn't you find a way for them to get caught and punished, but not severely punished? And didn't you successfully steal the potion out of Mrs. Weasley's dormitory? I think that it worked pretty well."

"Yes I guess it did." Snape said and took his wand out of his pocket, he murmured a word and the password was instantly changed again.

"Aconite? That's pretty easy to find, considering the fact that they found "Lily of the Valley" which was an unusual choice for a password, don't you think so?"

"If you say so." Severus murmured and an image flashed through his mind: green emerald colored eyes, warm and smiling.

"_**The Forbidden Forest? Really? Out of all the punishments he could force upon you, nasty and terrifying ones he chose that one?" **_

Neville nodded silently and shared a confused and tired glance with Ginny, who was standing next to him, facing the crowded room of requirement. The room was filled with students, asking questions about the events inside Snape's office, as the news had been talked and talked all day long, but no one knew the exact details of what happened.

"That's strange, very strange!" Ernie said and other students nodded.

"Very strange indeed, and strange things don't stop there, my felix felicis was stolen last night." A loud sigh was heard, coming out of Lavender's mouth with Parvati following suit. However Ginny didn't even glance towards their direction, her eyes were glued on Ernie. "Did you happen to _see_ it lately?"

Ernie who was reading a book while discussing with his friends, raised his head and glanced at Ginny, as if not acknowledging the words coming out of her mouth.

"Do you mean that I _stole_ it?" His eyes were wide open now, a look of frustration and surprise gracing them.

"Maybe, I mean you were the one who insisted on sharing it again and again, maybe you decided to take it and share it without telling me."

"I didn't steal it….I would never…." Ernie stuttered, loudly closing his book, he suddenly stood up and faced Ginny, shoving his head right in front of hers. "I don't know why you _hate_ me _that_ much, but I would never ever steal something from you, Weasley."

Ginny quickly got the switch from him calling her _Ginny_ to Weasley however she didn't let her famous temper to grow and grow and explode right in his face. She nodded, lowered her head and sighed.

"I am sorry" She said. "I shouldn't accuse you, I am just tense lately."

"And so am I, but I don't burst right into your face." Ernie said but their conversation was quickly interrupted by Neville, who silently reminded Ginny that they had to go and get ready for their night adventures inside the Forbidden Forest.

_**Ok, so this is it. I am sorry for not incorporating the forbidden forest scene yet, I didn't want to rush it and ruin it. Next chapter will be all about the forbidden forest scene, featuring Ginny-Neville-Luna-Hagrid. I was also thinking of tying the story with that of Harry and Hermione discovering the sword's true abilities and that of Dean's conversation with the goblins. So there will be a bit of Dean there and a reference to Harry, Hermione and Ron.**_

_**Now back to our story, I am not sure if you'll catch these little references of mine but there are two things I want you to notice.**_

_**First, the password Lily of the Valley which refers to….?**_

_**Second Neville is the one to hold the sword, and he (even) feels proud of it. I wanted to have him holding the sword and not Ginny, just to put a little glimpse of what's about to come. (Him killing Nagini with it, dahhhh!) **_

_**Now I know that there isn't enough of Luna here, and you may wonder when, how and why did Snape steal the felix felicis, but since I incorporated it in my story I had to find a way to let them without the potion's protection and luck, in order for them to fail to steal the sword.**_

_**Please, review this chapter and tell me if you like it or not.**_


	20. The Forbidden forest and so on

_**Since some of you messaged me about my last chapter telling me that you didn't quite understand it I decided to rewrite it.**_

_**This starts after the events inside Snape's office (attempting to steal the sword of Gryffindor). I am going to speed it up a bit, since as you all can understand I can't write so many school months into a single story. I am going to speed up their time and reach towards Christmas where big big changes are about to happen (always according to the original canon).**_

Ginny Weasley had always been described as brave, strong and cheerful however those words couldn't describe her feelings or mood anymore.

Ginny Weasley wasn't a winner this time. She didn't feel strong and happiness was nowhere to be found.

She had a plan, a great plan, to steal the sword of Gryffindor and send it to Harry.

Her plan had failed.

Ginny walked the hallway that lead to the outdoors of the castle not fearing for the nature of her punishment, since spending a night inside the forbidden forest with Hagrid didn't seem that bad to her. She had faced worse events and punishments.

Actually fear was nowhere to be found. Only a slight feeling of devastation and inability of thinking of anything cheerful or hopeful…

Those feelings could easily be attributed to the presence of dementors guarding the school but deep down she knew that this was not the case.

She had no more plans on how to help Harry and not knowing where exactly was his whereabouts didn't help her either.

Ginny glanced towards Neville and Luna, her two best friends who walked a great distance in front of her, quietly chatting with each other and wondered if they felt the same way. They haven't discussed the possibility of forming new plans of rebellion or new plans of helping Harry.

They haven't discussed pretty much anything that wasn't related to their studies, lunch and families.

She watched them now and thanked Merlin for their presence in her life because without their help she didn't know how she would manage to copy.

After spending a while lost in her thoughts and worries Ginny noticed that she had reached the outlines of the forest with Hagrid and his old dog waiting for them to come. She quietly greeted Hagrid avoiding his questioning and worried eyes and petted the dog.

Ginny heard Luna quietly explaining to Hagrid what happened inside Snape's office. Hagrid took a deep breath and nodded. Ginny waited and waited and waited for him to tell them that they did something dangerous and silly. What she didn't wait was for him to praise them.

"The three of you remind me so much of Harry, Hermione and Ron" Hagrid said and for the first time Ginny didn't feel the usual pang of sadness when she heard Harry's name but a new feeling that could only be described as pride.

If Hagrid thought that she acted like Harry then she must be doing something right. She didn't manage to steal the sword but maybe just maybe she could rebel in her own little way. Maybe she could make Snape's life a hell and their life in the castle a tad better.

_**Neville never really liked the forest and the creatures residing inside it. **_If he had to be absolutely honest with himself, the forest scared him very very much.

Spending the night inside that place wasn't the best scenario for him but knowing that the punishment for attempting to steal the sword could be worse than that he let himself relax and sleep.

He closed his eyes and momentarily sleep crept over him but his dreams weren't pleasant and soon he woke up. He glanced around towards Luna's and Ginny's tiny sleeping forms and Hagrid's huge one. And towards the dog that stood next to the giant, fully awake.

"Come here Fang, come here boy"

The dog slowly crept his way towards Neville and Neville petted its back. It was nice having a dog with them inside the forest even though he knew that this particular dog wasn't a great source of protection.

"I wonder where Harry, Hermione and Ron are. Do you think that they are safe Fang? Sleeping inside a warm house or cold and unprotected outside in a forest like this one?"

Fang of course couldn't answer his questions so Neville stopped talking to the dog and listened to the rustling of the trees and the sounds of unknown animals.

Hagrid claimed that the three of them acted like Harry, Hermione and Ron and although Neville couldn't possibly compare himself with them deep down a little voice told him that indeed his rebellious actions reminded him of them.

Harry would try to steal the sword if he could help the rebellion or a friend. And Hermione and Ron would be there to help him.

Harry would probably manage to steal it, unlike himself, but he couldn't let his thoughts take him there. He was nothing like Harry, he wasn't courageous like him or smart like Hermione but he had learnt through his friend's words and advices that he too possessed a rebellious spirit.

And even though he still feared of Snape and he still didn't think himself as a leader and a rebel he knew that he would continue doing his best at opposing Snape and consequently the death eaters.

_**As quickly as the night came it ended leaving behind a cold reminder of what their rebellious actions could bring. **_

The forest was soon left behind, the coldness and the loneliness forgotten. The warm and cozy common room of Gryffindor was again their home and their safe place. The room of the requirement the place where they formed their new plans and the rooms of their classes the places where either they learnt what magic was all about or suffered under curses and punishments inflicted by the Carrows.

Days by days, weeks by weeks passed and nothing important happened in their lives. Carrows kept punishing them for reasons no one could understand, the other teachers tried to protect them as best as they could, parents wrote them letters asking them if they were safe and happy, if they ate and slept well. Words and phrases were written on walls by Dumbledore's Army. Classes and offices were destroyed. Snape's office was destroyed and restored twice. Alecto Carrow's face was peppered with red ugly marks from Terry Boot's spell and her brother's teeth had fallen due to Parvati's spell.

Slytherin's common room was transformed in red and gold with a roaring lion, symbol of courage and Gryffindor.

More and more students joined Dumbeldore's Army, more and more punishments were inflicted on their bodies and souls.

However no matter how life went on inside the castle nothing changed outside it. The dementors were still there, the death eaters still killed, Harry was nowhere to be found and Voldemort still ruled and terrorized.

However Christmas time was in the corner and no matter if the students still didn't know it, crucial changes were about to happen.


	21. Christmas time won t be cheerful

**The events of this chapter start a few weeks after the attempt to steal the sword of Gryffindor. We are one step from Christmas and we all know what that means. Christmas holidays means one thing: Bye Bye Luna! (Shading tears)**

**I tried to incorporate many point of views into this chapter, in an attempt to show you the thoughts inside everyone's mind. Please let me know if the switch on and off between the character's POV bores you, confuses you or excites you.**

Luna Lovegood was often described as a curious person, a person with such affinity towards no ordinary things that ordinary things seemed to not hold any interest for her. Her love for creatures that existed only in tales or creatures her father had invented and proclaimed as alive and magnificent was often misunderstood.

People used to call her various names such as lunatic or , students used to mock her, teachers used to sight and roll their eyes whenever she passionately described a creature no one else had ever seen.

However none of these mattered to Neville Longbottom who was fixated on Luna's long, blonde eyelashes and the way her eyes shined whenever she spoke about her favorite subjects.

Neville would occasionally steal glances at Luna. He would frequently accompany her, while she was gracefully strolling around the corridors and towards the classrooms. He would sit next to her and watch her eat. Neville liked Luna. Luna didn't know.

" Nev, are you day-dreaming again?"

Neville jumped up glancing wildly around for the source of the voice, which came by a young Irish guy, sitting two seats behind Neville, next to an irritated and ashamed Parvati Patil.

"Shut up, Seamus!" Neville said, rolling his eyes when the boy chuckled loudly. He shot a vicious glare towards the Irish's direction, silently telling him to stay quiet. The professor however had heard them chatting and was casually sitting on his chair, pretending to enjoy the conversation.

"Longbottom" Carrow said, completely ignoring Seamus. "Could you explain to me why you are chatting with the bubble head you are calling your friend while I am teaching you such an important lesson?"

Neville glanced towards Carrow again. The professor was sitting on his chair next to a bleeding and slightly unconscious student whose name he didn't know. Neville who had lost the entire episode daydreaming about Luna bore his eyes towards his classmates silently asking them what happened.

"Mary was daydreaming during the class, _professor_ Carrow" Parvati said, giving special attention to the word professor. "caught her daydreaming and decided to show her what happens when we are not paying attention."

"That's right Patil" Carrow mouthed, surprised that Parvati was eager to reply to Neville's silent question.

"I tried to stop him" Parvati continued "but he wouldn't let me help her, because clearly _he_ thinks that we are practicing dolls for the _unforgivable_ curses"

Neville sighed loudly, wondering why would Parvati provoke her fate this way, why would she say the words he and unforgivable so loudly but then the idea stroked him, she was _resisting_.

"Stand up Patil" Carrow sneered, he gritted his teeth and shook his hands menacingly however Parvati was determinate to not let him cause her panic. She wouldn't be afraid. She would stand strong.

She quickly approached his office, mentioning to Mary to get up and go back to her seat, Mary struggled to move her legs but she was too weak so Parvati helped her get up. She would be punished more severely for her actions. She didn't mind.

Hesitantly, step by step, as if she was still afraid of an upcoming punishment Mary returned to her seat. That was the moment Parvati felt a shiver run down her spine, accompanied by a searing pain and eventually an agonizing cry.

Parvati repeated the same mantra over and over inside her head. "Mary was too weak, too innocent, I can stand the pain. I can do this." But the pain was searing, she felt like hundreds of knives curved and sliced and chopped her body into pieces. "Hold on Parvati! Hold on, for Hogwarts, for Padma, she could be the one being tortured wouldn't you want someone else to help her? Hold on!" She repeated her mantra inside her head. Until finally the pain went away, leaving a numbing effect on her body and mind.

Lavender heard each and every cry that left her friend's mouth, saw the way her body twitched and curled. The way her forehead was filled with creases, her shoulders curled downwards. She watched her friend getting tortured, wanting to stand up and help her out but she couldn't. She couldn't leave Mary alone. Mary was sitting next to her, hugging her legs with her long hands, shaking like a leaf. It was the first time she got tortured and she wasn't still familiar with the way your body twitched and hurt after you were inflicted with an unforgivable curse.

Lavender was all too familiar with that pain, as was Parvati, as was Seamus, as was Neville who had now a few long scratches and cuts on his face and hands, whose body had been tortured so many times that she imagined that the pain didn't seem that terrible anymore.

She remembered the last time she was tortured, by the hands of Alecto Carrow, and later Goyle and Crabbe. Alecto was the most vicious one of the Carrow brothers, the one who enjoyed causing pain more, and the most talented with the curses. Her brother wasn't that talented when it came to curses and spells. He was relentless though and that made him terrifying.

She knew exactly how terrifying it could be for a girl like Mary to be tortured so she didn't leave her spot. She sat next to her for the entire class, until Parvati finally joined them, sitting next to Seamus who patted her arm and gave her a sympathetic smile.

Neville who watched the entire episode happening in front of his eyes, felt disgusted with himself for not taking Parvati's place. He interfered and gained a fresh, bleeding cut on his cheek but he didn't do anything else to stop the punishment and it made him sick to his stomach.

As the months passed and especially after the whole "stealing Gryffindor's sword" episode, students seemed to lean on to him more than ever! They had somehow unofficially elected him as their leader, with Ginny and Luna simply helping and standing next to him. Dumbledore's Army grew every single day, more and more students joining in. Students who relied to his advices, his words, his leadership!

Seamus went straight to him after the long punishment he got from Alecto asking him for a way to show her that she couldn't simply punish anyone she wished and get away with it. Terry Boot and Michael Corner asked him about the effects of a Vietnamese plant on fresh cuts, cuts on twelve year old student's faces inflicted by none other Alecto Carrow herself.

Parvati and Lavender seemed to notice him more now that they considered him as a leading figure. People that never talked to him, or noticed him before praised him at the end of their DA meetings. Ginny backed off and trusted his words and actions (although a part of him was convinced that this wasn't due to his leading skills but due to her own desperation of not coming up with new ideas). And last but not least Luna admired him and praised him on daily basis.

He felt the shame creep inside him though. For not standing up to Carrow and taking Parvati's place! Yes, his friends would reassure him that it wasn't his job to do so, that he couldn't use himself as a practicing doll every time someone else got punished. But he felt the weight of his leadership on his shoulders. And that weight indicated that if he wanted to call himself the leader of their resistance group he had to act.

Ginny left her classroom and headed towards the dining room where she would meet with her two best friends, Neville and Luna, accompanied by Seamus, Parvati and Lavender who seemed to join them more often as time passed and the group bonded. They would quietly discuss about their classes and assignments and even more quietly, almost mystically chat about their upcoming resisting plans.

Ginny was still an active resistant member, one that helped her fellow students to write resisting phrases on walls and save the younger students from their punishments. One that helped Neville and Padma heal the bleeding ones, applying the healing cream Madam Pomphrey silently passed to them.

She didn't feel proud of her achievements though, deep down inside the abyss of her soul she felt desperate and lost. She had no news of her family or Harry. She was left in the dark for a couple weeks and it didn't help her nerves calm down.

Ginny struggled to come up with new, exciting and highly promising plans but since the disaster her latest plan to steal the sword caused, her mind went blank as a paper.

She knew that if Harry saw her act that way he would be disappointed, he never seized to come up with ideas. Nor did Hermione! She wasn't them though.

So she let Neville, Luna and the others lead not knowing what else to do.

December came quicker than he thought possible, leaving Draco confused and practically lost. He was eager to leave the hell he called school for a couple of weeks and go back to his home and family; but at the same time the upcoming meeting with Lord Voldemort wasn't one he was longing for.

Christmas didn't mean numerous presents, dinners and exclusive and highly prestigious parties. Nor did it mean magical golf tournaments with his father. Bullying the younger children of his neighbors with his friends and flirting that tall blonde witch who always slipped out of his fingers.

Christmas meant a period full of agonizing over and predicting Voldemort's mood swings. A period where each word and move has to be carefully organized in order to not provoke the hatred of his Lord; a period he came to hate.

Draco dragged his belongings inside the train accompanied by Crabbe and Goyle and Pansy who was somehow always around him. Pansy was rambling as always, chatting about the presents her mother had bought her and would show her during Christmas, about the jealousy and hurt her parents had to endure for not hosting the death eaters meetings. About the privilege Draco's family had gained over other death eaters families, simply by hosting their Lord.

Draco cursed under his breath and pushed Pansy in front of him, in order to distance himself from her. He didn't want anyone to hear about the meetings, although everyone knew who he was and who his parents were, he didn't want to cause any attention to fly towards him. His mission was to stay undetected, quite, almost invisible.

He managed to do so for the last couple months, quietly staying in the shadows, planning and scheming. He had an excellent plan, one that would soon come true. When Potter would return to the castle he would hold him hostage and present him to Lord Voldemort, instantly gaining his appreciation for his and his family's sake. No one would doubt his power then, no one would underestimate him or mock him. They would fear of him and respect him.

Maybe then the girl he was interested in would show him some love, give him the attention he deserved and maybe just maybe he would be able to get rid of Pansy. Pansy, who would of course want to marry him but with his new found power he would be able to send her away, maybe move her to another country, away from him.

The plan was simple, stay inside the castle as long as Potter isn't there and the moment he would come find him and capture him.

"What are you thinking about Draco?" Pansy asked, flattering her eyelashes in an attempt to flirt with him. Draco ignored her, staring outside the window of the train he was travelling with. Watching trees and lakes and rivers pass his windows and the sky getting darker and darker. The train was unusually busy and lost as he was inside his thoughts he didn't notice a high scream that pierced through the entire train.

Luna passed outside Draco Malfoy's compartment with Neville, Ginny and Seamus. Malfoy was distracted by something, he didn't notice Seamus staring inside the compartment nor did he notice the spell Ginny threw towards his direction.

Draco Malfoy was a very strange boy according to Luna, she never got to fully understand his behavior, she knew that he wasn't a killer, a death eater or a vicious boy. But his behavior and his love for the dark arts didn't help him gain anyone's respect or appreciation. And even though Luna was always able to see right through everyone's soul he troubled her a lot.

So lost was Luna inside her thoughts of Malfoy and those new Criwalter creatures her father talked to her about that she didn't notice two large men standing in their way. The men did notice them though, with the larger one of them pushing them around and asking them questions that didn't matter to Luna.

She saw Seamus hesitantly replying, Ginny nodding her head and Neville turning into a sick green color. Ginny suddenly lunched forward, throwing herself at one of the death eaters, with Neville following suit and Seamus trying to stop them both from getting in trouble. The death eater easily deflected their attempts, pushing them around and cursing loudly, using curses Luna never heard of before.

He was a tall man, muscular and quite terrifying, with a face that showed that the curses he used were of frequent use. He seemed uncivilized and vicious. His teeth were gritting, his fists curling into tight balls. He was clearly fuming with anger, for what reason she didn't know.

That was when she heard her name, name and surname, spilled out with anger from the death eater's mouth. She also heard her father's name and felt a large hand gripping her shoulders and turning her around. The death eater was examining her face while clutching a picture that looked nothing like her.

He quickly discarded the picture into a large bag he was carrying and gripped her hands tighter, he pushed her face forward and whispered something with the other death eaters silently nodding.

Luna felt her insides turning out when she saw the death eater who was clutching her hands taking a wand out of his pocket and turning it towards her.

She felt a numbing effect spreading on her body and mind, she desperately tried to fight off the numbing effect that didn't leave her take control of her body but nothing could break the spell.

She was forced to watch herself getting dragged out of the train by the death eaters. With the last image she saw before heading off, being a bloody mess of bodies and cries of agony.

**So basically we have Neville becoming the leader of Dumbledore's Army with people relying on him, the effects of the war on Parvati and Lavender (who I always thought that participated actively at the resistance) and a little bit of Ginny, Draco and of course Luna!**

**LUNA! Luna isn't forever gone, her story will be evolved at the same time we'll see Neville's and Ginny's story.**


	22. Not really vacations

The room was illuminated only by a small candle with the delicate light flickering from time to time and casting shadows at the empty grey walls.

Luna batted her eyelashes trying to adjust to the dim lighting of the place, her eyes wondering around trying to find a way to escape though the room seemed to have only one magically sealed door and no windows or any other exit.

No matter how many times she spun around and thought of a particular destination, without her wand she had no ability to cast spells therefore she could open neither the door nor magically teleport somewhere else.

Exhausted and after hours and hours of trying, Luna came up to the conclusion that the room was magically altered in a way no wizard could enter it or exit it magically.

She had estimated that she was kidnapped by the train almost two days ago with her kidnappers blind folding her and using the imperious curse for her not to be able to detect her whereabouts.

Blind folded for hours, with no source of water or food, scared for the first time in her life Luna suddenly developed a fear of the unknown and the darkness. A fear she never possessed before.

She was scared of what the future would bring to her and scared of all the bad things that could happen to her and her loved ones.

She was also scared of the dark, cold room she was residing in.

Neville felt the hot tears falling on his cheeks, running down on his white collared shirt and ruining the perfect crispness of it. He was crying for the past half hour while thinking of the events that occurred inside the train and later at the train station.

Neville alongside with Ginny and Seamus had witnessed his best friend and secret love interest being dragged out of the train and into the unknown not knowing what to do and how to help her.

He had seen Luna's questioning eyes and the surprise registered in them when she finally put together all the pieces. He had registered the pain dueling with the shock. And he had stared and stared, incapable of helping her out.

Initially he tried to stop the death eaters, with Ginny and Seamus standing by his side. The Irish boy was wiser though, seeing through the calm façade of the death eaters the true purpose of their arrival. Seamus tried to stop him and Ginny from fighting the death eaters foreseeing the punishment that would be inflicted on them.

The punishment that now took the form of a long cut on his cheek which would never totally heal, leaving a scar on his face.

The Irish boy was efficient at the end, he had managed to stop the death eaters from torturing Neville and Ginny but at the same time he had stopped them from helping their friend. And for that he secretly hated Seamus.

For if he wasn't stopped he might have found a way to help Luna out, he might have found a way to run and grab Luna's hand and jump out of the train or teleport somewhere else, safe and warm and protected. He might have found a way to save her from the fate she now had to face.

Seamus had stopped him though and as his grandmother used to say you cannot change the past and you cannot blame others for what you weren't capable of doing.

Neville didn't manage to save Luna and for that he had to blame only himself and no one else. And the blame was on him, her father had made it clear.

Neville saw mister Lovegood waiting at the train platform, wearing a funny bright yellow suit and holding Luna's favorite flowers. Anticipating his daughter to come home he didn't seem to notice everyone's agitation. He smiled widely, staring at the train, waiting for those long blonde hair and beautiful eyes to come out.

Neville knew that mister Lovegood would be devastated, his heart broken into little pieces, and he knew that the bad news had to be delivered by one and only person, him.

Ginny was too frustrated to do anything than to curse loudly and fume with anger. Seamus wasn't Luna's best friend and the other ones weren't the right ones to deliver the tragic news.

The task was left upon him.

So he was the one to break the news and he was the one to hear mister Lovegood sight and curse and cry loudly, cursing Merlin for his fate. Mister Lovegood had made it clear that day that it was Neville's fault that Luna was gone.

And even though Seamus, and Ginny and his grandmother had all reassured him that he could do nothing to change her fate and that at the end of the day it was mister Lovegood's writing that destroyed his family, he could and would never forget the accusation in the old man's eyes.

He wasn´t dumb he knew pretty well what caused Luna´s kidnapping and it had to do nothing with him and everything about her father and especially his support towards Harry and his cause. Neville knew that pretty well but the accusation inside the man´s eyes was too hard to be erased through his mind. So the tears kept falling and falling til he had no more left.

The noise coming from the basement was starting to irritate Draco.

It had been two days that Luna Lovegood was brought to his house, bounded and blindfolded, shaking like a leaf. She was thrown inside the basement and left to her own fate, as the dark Lord had found no use for her. He had sent his aunt to question her about her father´s support towards Harry Potter but she seemed to be left in the dark. And left in the dark as she was and with Lovegood being threatened constantly the danger of an upcoming revolution was being easily suffocated.

The voice could not be suffocated though and it was piercing through Draco´s ears.

He was getting tired of all those screams and pleads of the young girl whenever his aunt visited her. He knew that his aunt could be vicious and that with the girl being tortured the screams and pleads were inevitable but couldn´t she stop for a while?

Did the young Ravenclaw have to scream for so many hours in the row?

Draco frowned slightly, shaking his head from side to side. He threw the newspaper he was reading towards the garbage bin and stood up from the bed he was laying at.

Quickly he grabbed a neatly folded shirt and slipped it over his head. He brushed his hair and arranged it in a pleasant looking way and glanced outside his bedroom.

From the window of his bedroom he could see the house of the girl he was interested in and though he didn´t see her for the past two days since the day he arrived home she was now standing outside the beautiful grass of her house.

Astoria Greengrass was a beautiful girl, with blonde long hair and beautiful grey eyes that made him shiver whenever they fell on him. Draco who usually ignored or taunted the girls that kept flirting with him was now intrigued by the mystery that was Astoria Greengrass for him.

Her parents weren´t death eaters as his were but they were almost as rich and privileged as his and her house was a beautiful place to live in. He had visited it many times in the past and was planning to keep visiting it many times in the future as well in hopes of grabbing the girl´s attention.

Draco quietly exited his bedroom and headed towards the living room, effortlessly avoiding couple death eaters who strolled around the house. The living room was packed with death eaters as well, men and women quietly discussing or eating their meals and drinking their drinks.

They seemed carefree and with the dark lord missing Draco found the perfect opportunity to slip outside the door. He quickly left the patio as well and after brushing his hair back he found himself standing infront of Astoria.

¨Hey, long time no see hah?¨ Draco mouthed, throwing her a wide smile.

Astoria who still had to acknowledge his presence swept her hair back mimicking his earlier actions. Casually she dragged her eyes to meet his eyes. Draco noticed the long blonde eyelashes and the grey swirls inside her eyes, he didn´t notice though her expression which was rather annoyed.

¨What do you want, Draco?¨ Her eyes now bore into his. Her lips were pressed together in a thin line, her head swaying back and forth.

¨I was just wondering…¨Draco began but was quickly interrupted by the young girl.

¨I saw the girl¨ Astoria said quickly explaining who she meant when she saw Draco´s questioning eyes. ¨The one those two men dragged here, blindfolded. She looked younger than me. Why was she blindfolded Draco? And why did they bring her to you?¨

Draco opened his mouth, and quickly closed it back. He took a deep breath, searching his mind for any kind of answer. Could he tell her the truth? No, he wasn't allowed. Or did she already know who he and his family were? And if yes, did she hate him for that?

¨I don´t…I can´t…I am not…¨Draco pressed his lips together his mouth felt dry.

¨When you´ll find the answer to my question let me know.¨ Astoria said throwing him a disapproving look and leaving her place.

To be continued…..

_**Can I just say how hard it was for me to write this chapter down? I had to step inside each one´s shoes and that was really hard for me to do. You may wonder why mister Lovegood blamed Neville well I think that the explanation can be found easily inside the story. Mister Lovegood was shocked and hurt and he had to blame someone so he blamed the first person he saw but Neville being Neville actually took his words into regard. I always thought that Nev would blame himself for what happened to Luna even though he could do nothing to help her out. Not sure if you agree or not. Let me know.**_

_**Now on to Draco I wanted to write a bit about his experiences and I thought that introducing Astoria would be fun as she will be the one to make Draco question his actions. I always wanted Draco to question his actions and feel some kind of remorse and I thought that Astoria could soften him up leading to him simply nodding to Harry at the end of the story with the past being left behind and a new person being born.**_


	23. Luna and Draco

**It's been so long I haven't updated this story, thinking that no one was interested in it anymore but seeing that people actually favorite it time and time again I thought why not give it a chance? Why shouldn't I continue writing? Reading again all the chapters I wrote so far I am kind of ashamed of all the grammar mistakes I used to make. Oh and my writing skills! I hope that you consider my current writing skills better to start with.**

**This chapter will feature two of my favorite characters. And the ones I am free to play with more freely, since we don't know much about their time during the deathly hallows. Malfoy and Luna.**

**Please note that the story starts after the Christmas break, with Luna being kidnapped from the train and thrown into the Malfoy Manor and Draco preparing to go back to school. **

**Enjoy, review, favorite?**

Sparkles, little golden sparkles of light flickering through the air

Sparkles.

Beautiful and free to travel everywhere they pleased.

How jealous was she of those little nothings. How much she wished to be able to fly through the air, outside her window, outside the dark spaces of the Malfoy Manor.

Luna closed her eyes, and forced herself to imagine that she too was a sparkle. Free to do whatever she wanted. Bright and happy and untroubled!

The noise she heard though brought her back to the place she was.

"_Time will pass and you shall go, down the hill down below._

_Close your eyes and let go._

_You no longer live above."_

Someone was singing a familiar song and she started humming along but soon stopped.

Death wasn't a pleasant subject to sing about, especially when your death could be on the corner.

Luna sighed; she didn't want to think of death, especially her own one.

Maybe she wasn't going to die, maybe her kidnappers, the death eaters that walked above the basement she resided in would pity her and let her go.

She didn't know why she was kidnapped in the first place. She never did anything wrong.

Well except recreating Dumbledore's Army. But they couldn't know that.

Could they?

"**Draco, are you ready my dear? We shall leave soon." **

_We_ shall leave soon. Oh who was she kidding? Draco knew fair well that his mother wasn't going to accompany him to this journey towards the train station. The sickness that was bothering her lately wouldn't allow her to.

Draco picked up his clothing, books, and other school supplies and quickly threw them inside his luggage. The books were too heavy and too many and closing the luggage was getting hard so he decided to unpack everything and pack again.

After all his mother would be disappointed in him for not taking proper care of this clothing, folding it, and gently putting it inside his luggage. She wouldn't approve of the careless way he threw his books either.

After packing everything in, Draco sat on his desk, feet hanging from the edge of it.

Not having anything else to do, his mind wondered towards the latest events happening in his life. Having the dark lord strolling inside his house, with his dear aunt Bella worshipping the ground he walked on wasn't as pleasant as he thought it would be.

How fool could he be to wish to have death eaters and his lord living among them? What kind of satisfaction did he think that would provide him with?

He wasn't one of them, he wasn't a powerful death eater, equal and why not superior of them. He was mainly the guy that messed up everything. The guy whose parents only responsibility was to provide their house to the death eaters, nothing else than that, only provide a space for them to gather.

Anyone could provide a space.

They were the Malfoys, they were purebloods, coming from a prosperous, educated, and well known generation. Shouldn't their involvement be larger than that?

Shouldn't his involvement be larger than sitting on the table they all gathered in, staring at the ceiling, and merely nodding when needed to?

And not only did his responsibilities disappoint him, he also had to endure the presence of Luna Lovegood.

Of course he didn't see the girl at all, he didn't talk to her, nor did he in any way acknowledge her presence.

Hell, he didn't either care that she was kidnapped and thrown inside his basement.

Astoria cared though. Astoria knew of the events that happened inside the train. She also somehow knew that the young Ravenclaw was brought to Malfoy Manor, where she was held hostage for over two weeks.

Astoria knew and cared.

And Draco cared for Astoria.

He was intrigued by his neighbor, mesmerized by her personality, her fierceness, her cleverness, her blonde long silky hair.

He rarely cared for girls, but he found himself caring for her.

He wanted to spend time with her, chat with her, and accompany her to long walks. He wanted her to appreciate and admire him and most of all stop considering him a kidnapper. A cruel, cruel person...

That's how she called him, a cruel person. Hah! As he somehow could fix up everything, let Lovegood go or better free her.


End file.
